Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog
by Dis Lexic
Summary: Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.
1. Chapter 1

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **Welp, it was really only a matter of time before I pulled out something like this. This is actually one of two ideas I came up with based around Longinus in Worm. This one is an actual crossover, although Worm is the primary world and you can basically assume that most of the events of DXD won't be happening. Anyway, ONWARDS!**

Chapter 1

I think I pissed someone off in my last life. No, scratch that, I know I pissed someone off in my last life. What do I mean by that? Well, let me tell you my story. It started on the day I died. Yes, its another of those stories, but keep listening. Its a good one. Anyway, as I was saying, I died and was reborn. The problem is that the world I was born into was one destined to be killed at the hands of its 'greatest hero' (or so I thought. More on that later though), a world infested by monsters of both the literal and metaphorical sense, where killers roamed the streets and people got superpowers from the worst day of their lives. Yep, I was born into the world of Worm. To make matters worse, both my Parents were in deep with the Empire Eighty Eight and I mean REALLY deep. My Dads fucking HOOKWOLF!

Well, I say hes my Dad, but hes more of a sperm donor. I'm pretty sure that the only reason he was ever around was that he was hoping I'd Trigger. As it turned out, he was wasting his time because I technically already had, but thats for later.

So yeah, as you can imagine, growing up was pretty rough. Between being home-schooled along with a number of other kids of E88 members (cus I guess they didn't want to risk the kids being 'corrupted' before they could indoctrinate them), Parents who I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire and a distinct lack of anyone who wasn't either a Nazi or fast approaching being one around, I only had one companion growing up, my little black corgi I named Zwei just to be clever. He was certainly smart enough and adorable enough to live up to the name at least.

I'm not entirely sure where the little dog had come from, although I have a feeling it was from my Grandma, who neither of my parents liked due to her considering the Empire to be a bunch of complete moron and once outright laughed in my Fathers face when he tried to intimidate her. She then proceeded to take him apart with her walking stick and leave him tied up for the PRT to collect. Hes still got a limp from that. Unfortunately, I didn't see her as much as I'd like due to the aforementioned dislike and asskicking, but I'm almost certain she was the one who gave me Zwei with the promise that he'd protect me. Still not entirely sure how a dog that doesn't even reach my knee is going to protect me, but whatever.

Other than that, she had a tendency of sending me books on mythology, mostly Norse, and runes, again, mostly from the Nordic styles, along with what can only be described as homework assignments. It was a little odd to say the least, but considering I didn't have much else to do, I did all the exercises she sent me. They were surprisingly fun to do.

* * *

Anyway, time did as it was want to do and kept marching on, regardless of what anyone wanted. I spent as much time as possible away from home and well away from anything my 'parents' (and I was still loath to call them that) thought was good, usually with only Zwei for company.

It was during one of these excursions that I met someone...interesting.

* * *

I was hanging out in one of the many small, rather anemic parks that were scattered around the city in a vane effort to bring a bit of colour and life to the city, keeping one eye on a group of strung out looking teens as I lounged on the grass under a tree with Zwei curled up at my side when a shadow fell over me. A little startled that someone had managed to sneak up on me, I looked up and was immediately struck with a sense of incredulity.

The person in question was a girl who looked about my age, maybe a tad older, with rough cut, reddish brown hair, hazel eyes and a build that indicated that she was extremely fit. She was wearing a bulky jacket with a fur collar and jeans held up by a belt with a dogs head buckle. I recognized her immediately as Bitch, but there was something...off about her looks. It took me a moment to figure it out because it was so unexpected.

In most depictions of Rachal Lindt, she was, perhaps not ugly, but definitely unattractive. However, this Rachal was. Attractive I mean. She wasn't conveniently beautiful like Glory Girl, but she was cute, in the same way a big, friendly dog was. I'm not doing a good job of explaining this, but its the best I can do. Basically, she'd likely get a lot of second looks from the guys if she wasn't scowling all the time. And a scary Cape. That tended to be a bit of a turn off.

I wasn't really worried about her though since, despite her reputation, she wasn't actually prone to random acts of violence, unless mistreatment of dogs was involved. The fact that Zwei was obviously well cared for would likely help endear me to her as well.

She ignored me as she crouched down in front of Zwei as the little dog sleeperly lifted his head. For a moment, the two just stared at each other as Rachels dogs milled around behind her, before the Cape reached out and scratched my dog behind the ears. He leaned into the petting, his tongue lolling out in pleasure. Without stopping the movements of her fingers, Rachel shifted her gaze to me. I met her gaze, not backing down, but also not pushing. I wasn't interested in being dominated or dominating this interaction, just happy being equals. After a moment, Rachel blinked and nodded.

"I like you," she said, "Keep him safe."

Then, she gave Zwei one last scratch and walked away. I watched her go, then looked at my dog, who met my gaze.

"Well, that was odd," I said.

* * *

That wasn't the last time I saw Rachel around. There were a few more times that she approached me while out and about. We never said more than a few words to each other, but despite that we somehow managed to create a connection. I have no idea why or how, but without words or even any overt body language, I quickly realized that Rachel liked being around someone who didn't give a rats ass about her reputation or powers. She obviously knew I knew who she was, but I never made a fuss or even made mention of it. It was...strange, but I liked it. She was certainly better company than the brats I was forced to spend time with by my Mother.

* * *

Of course, Rachel wasn't the only teenaged Villain I met. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, shortly after I encountered the future Undersider, Hookwolf showed up along with Othela and Victor and introduced me to Cassandra Herren, AKA, Rune. I'm not entirely sure why, other than a vague idea that they might be hoping for me to Trigger at some point and possibly hook up with Rune, but the odd thing was, I actually kinda liked her. When she wasn't flinging around recycled racist slurs or in a mood, she was genuinely rather fun to be around. If she hadn't grown up around White Supremacists her whole life, she'd probably be a genuinely good person.

Oh well, it's not too late. It's not like she'd done anything truly unforgivable yet, so I decided I might as well see if I can show her that the Empires beliefs were bullshit at best. It would certainly be...interesting.

* * *

Of course, around here it was pretty much inevitable that I'd get caught up in SOMETHING Cape related and, wouldn't you know it, in my case it was one of the Empires little 'events' or rather, one of my 'Fathers' dogfighting rings. They tended to be done in abandoned lots in the Docks so the cops or PRT wouldn't crash the party. I was in the area because I was exploring some abandoned warehouses with Zwei and heard the barking and screaming.

I gritted my teeth as I watched a still and bleeding dog getting dragged out of the ring as the rounds victor was led away by a very pleased looking skinhead, panting with bloody foam leaking between its teeth and the many, many wounds that covered its body. This was...wrong, so utterly wrong. I haven't really been a dog person in my last life, but growing up with Zwei had given me a new appreciation for Mans Best Friend. I wanted to do something to help, but...I couldn't. I was just a powerless 15 year old Human with a well trained corgi. I could probably match most of the thugs out there in a fight, but not all at once. Plus, they had vicious fighting dogs and Hookwolf and the Twins were present. Yeah, nothing I could do. I sighed and slowly relaxed my fists, leaving red crescent shapes where my nails had dug into my palms.

"Come on Zwei, lets go," I muttered to the little Corgi.

Zwei stopped growling and looked up at me, tilting his head slightly. I could see the confusion in his eyes. He wanted to help as well, as impossible as it might seem, but he wouldn't stand a chance. I sighed again and knelt down, pulling the little dog into my arms.

"Sorry buddy, but we'd just end up getting squashed," I muttered into his fur, "And I know what Hookwolfs like. He'd probably force you to fight and I don't want to see you get hurt."

Zwei whined and licked my cheek. I smiled weakly and turned to leave. However, before I'd gone more than a few steps, there was a loud crash, followed by a lot of cursing. I spun around, just in time to see what looked like the unholy mixing of lizard, rhinoceros and tank come barreling into the band of bigots with all the subtlety of a brick to the face. I'd ask what the actual fuck Rachel was thinking attacking a gathering with three enemy Capes present, but she probably wasn't.

Still, I have to admit, those massive mutts made short work of the morons who tried to stop her. Had it not been for the presence of Hookwolf and the Twins, she probably would have won without issues. Alas it was not to be and the Twins rapidly grew in size and promptly flattened two Bitches dogs with their spear and shield as Hookwolf revved up and charged, knocking the third dog out of the way and taking its legs off with a swipe of a blade. Bitch reacted rather predictably to her dogs being taken out and let out a roar of rage, before charging the living wood chipper. It...didn't go well. Fortunately, Hookwolf shifted back before she could be shredded, but grabbed her uncoordinated swing easily and swept her feet out from under her. She hit the ground hard and was quickly pinned under a mix of Hookwolfs weight and his blades.

"So, your the bitch whos been targeting my men," growled Hookwolf, "Tch, pathetic. Looks like I need to drill them more if they're losing to a weakling like you. Oh well, at least you won't be a problem any more."

He raised his other hand, which transformed into a mass of spinning blades. My eyes widened. He was going to kill her! Before I could even think about it, my feet were moving with Zwei at my heels. Unfortunately, I was way to far away to reach them before Hookwolf shredded Rachel into bloody chunks.

"NO!" I shouted, throwing out my hand as Hookwolfs arm started descending.

I felt something inside me respond to my desperation and a connection snap into place, not to an omnicidal space whale, but to the little dog beside me. In response, Zwei's eyes flared red and he shot forwards like a missle, leaving a black and red trail behind as a curved, black blade with red runes running up the spine shot out of his forehead. He slammed into Hookwolf and seemed to explode, black fog and glowing blades erupting from the point of impact, along with a loud yell of pain and rage and a loud bark that was much, much deeper and louder than the little Corgi should have been able to produce.

I ignored it for the moment however in favour of kneeling down beside Rachel and offering her my hand.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

Rachel glanced at me, then at the offered hand before, to my suprise, took it and let me pull her to her feet. I honestly hadn't expected her to accept the offered help.

"I'll be fine," she grunted.

I nodded and turned back to the cloud of darkness, just in time to see it implode, sending Hookwolf and the Twins flying, all covered in cuts and gashes and, in the case of the Twins, with their armour in tatters to the point that they were basically naked other than their masks. O...K, not sure why that happened, but considering how revealing their costumes were, its not that surprising.

However, it wasn't the downed Villains that had my attention, instead it was the massive hound that was padding towards me. It was huge, nearly as tall as me at the shoulder, with thick, black fur that turned gray at the feet, tail tip and tips of the thick ruff around its neck. Its eyes were blood red and glowing faintly, with a third slit in the middle of its forehead where the blade had appeared. Its fur moved slightly in an unfelt wind and the shadows below its paws rippled as if it was walking on water. I could feel him, the presence of the dog and its powers in the back of my mind and, despite the apparent impossibility, I knew its true name.

"Canis Lykaon," I muttered as I placed my hand on the Sacred Gears forehead, "Well, now I know where you came from. Now I just have to figure out how I have you."

Zwei closed his eyes happily at my touch, his tongue lolling out as I rubbed his ears. Unfortunately, an angry growl drew my attention away to my partner and the my Father, who was now on his feet and glaring at me as blades began to erupt from his body.

"You...damn...brat!" he snarled, "What do you think your doing?!"

I scowled as Zwei turned to glare at Hookwolf, growling lowly as blades began to emerge from under his fur.

"What I'm doing _Father,_ is stopping you from hurting my friend," I said, "And forging my own path while I'm at it."

I grinned.

"Lets see what the Inugami of the Black Blade can do against the Empires Mutt!" I said, "Get him Zwei!"

The Sacred Gear let out a howl and sprouted a massive number of God-slaying blades, before launching himself at Hookwolf. The Empire Cape barely had time to sprout his own blades before the Inugami was on him. It quickly became obvious who was more lethal though. Zwei was a weapon designed by the God of the Bible and had evolved to the point where it was able to kill Gods. Hookwolf was an idiot armed with blades made from Mortal steel. Zweis black blades made short work of Hookwolfs and drove him back, helped along by Zweis sharp teeth and claws.

At the same time, I trapped the still down Twins in a cage composed of black blades. It probably wouldn't keep them back if they started expanding, but considering their current state of dress, or lack there of, they didn't seem to interested in doing more than cover themselves and glare. Apparently, in addition to being able to direct Zwei with mental nudges and commands, I could also generate blades of darkness without directing the actual Avatar of my Sacred Gear to do it. I wonder if that was something all users could do or if I was just different? Eh, something to consider later I guess.

Suddenly, a flare from Zwei made me spin around, just in time to see a massive chunk of road slam into his side, knocking him away from Hookwolf, who immediately took advantage of the distraction to leap away and charge at me. I'm not sure if he intended to kill me or just take me down, but I wouldn't put it past him to do the former. He didn't give a shit about me, son or not, other than as a possible addition to the Empires roster which I'd just made obvious wouldn't be happening. Zwei scrambled back to his feet, but more rocks from Rune, who had apparently just arrived and was doing an excellent job of distracting my Sacred Gear, forced him to draw up short. I scowled and reached out with my power, summoning blades from the shadows in an attempt to trip Hookwolf. Unfortunately, he was obviously much more experienced than me and dodged the attacks with relative ease. I growled under my breath and summoned a pair of blades from the shadows of my sleeves as Rachel whistled for her own dogs.

However, before either of us could even think of countering Hookwolfs charge, a bolt of blue energy slammed into him and trapped him with magic circles around his chest, arms and legs while forcing him back into Human form.

"WHAT THE FUCK!?" he snarled, struggling to get free.

I stared for a moment at the obvious use of magic, before the sound of a cane tapping on the ground made me turn. Walking towards the battlefield was an elderly looking woman with silver hair, blue eyes and wearing a deep blue robe. Despite the fact she was walking with a cane, her posture was rock solid and her face and eyes were utterly fearless, despite the fact there were five notorious Capes present. However, it was the sight of the woman just behind my Grandmother that really caught me off guard.

She was a beautiful woman with eye and hair, which nearly reached the ground, that were the same colour as Grandma, despite looking to be in her late teens. She was wearing armour that looked very similar to the Twins, consisting of a white breastplate with gold and pale blue accents, matching, fingerless gauntlets, boots, hip guards, and wing-shaped hair clips, with a black leotard underneath her breastplate, black thigh-high stockings, and a pale blue cloth wrapped underneath her hip guards.

Well...that was a tad unexpected. Why would Rossweisse be with Grandma, unless...oh. That...actually explains a fair amount about why she sent me so much information about Norse Magic.

"You need to work on your spatial awareness," said Grandma as she stopped beside me, "Canis Lykaon might be powerful, but even a Longinus User can be taken out by a lucky shot."

"Got it," I said, my voice a little weak, "Um…"

"Oh, this is Rossweisse, my other Grandchild," said Grandma, not taking her glare of Hookwolf, who was glaring right back and not pissing himself like he should be, "She doesn't have a boyfriend, but at least she has better taste than Lillian."

Rossweisse deflated, tears running down her face.

"Grannyyyy!" she whined.

"Oh, do be quiet Rose," said Gondul, "If you need something to do, restrain the wannabe Valkyrie over there."

She pointed at the Twins, who looked more than a little stunned, although whether that was due to the speed that Gondul had taken out Hookwolf or the fact they were in the presence of genuine Valkyrie is up for debate. Probably the former. As Rossweisse slunk away to do as she was told, Grandma turned to Rachel. The girl met Grandmas gaze as her dogs started to grow again.

"Don't bother with your dogs Miss Lindt," said Grandma, "I have no intention of fighting you."

She glanced around.

"However, I do suggest you leave. I have no doubt that some adventurous soul is recording and has likely called the PRT. I do not wish to have one of my Grandsons friends get arrested."

Rachel looked a little surprised and glanced at me.

"Thats probably a good idea," I said, "Get going."

She started at me for a moment longer, before nodding.

"Keep safe," she said and jogged away with her dogs on her heels.

As she vanished, Grandma turned to Hookwolf, who was still trying to get free.

"Now you Bradly, I have to say I am very disappointed," said Grandma I knew you were scum, but to try and kill your own son is simply inexcusable."

Hookwolfs face went purple, clearly visible, even under his mask.

"FUCK YOU BITCH!" he snarled, "That traitor is no son of mine!"

I would have been more hurt by that, but considering I barely considered my Parents to be worth the title, it didn't mean much.

"I see," said Gondul, her face darkening, "In that case…"

She paused and pointed her cane at a chunk of building Rune had just flung our way, blasting it to bits and catching the girl in another bind. She let out a yelp as she suddenly lost her connection to the car roof she was riding on and crashed to the ground.

"...you won't mind if I take him in," she continued as if nothing had happened, "Now that his powers are active, he'll need someone to help him control them."

"Not a chance!" snarled Hookwolf as he kept struggling to get lose, "He belongs to the Empire!"

"Um, not to butt in, but why in the world would I ever work for that lunatic Kaiser?" I asked, "I consider the lot of you to be either idiots or hypocrites and its not like you can target my family. Grandmas already kicked your ass and I hold Mother in about as much regard as I do you."

"Anyone can be convinced, given the right...method," sneered Hookwolf, "You wouldn't want anything to happen to that mutt of yours, would you?"

I blinked and glanced at Zwei as he padded up beside me and nuzzled into my side.

"You mean the dog thats the source of my power?" I asked, "And would have cut you to shreds if Rune hasn't arrived when she did?"

Hookwolfs face went a rather odd colour as he realized that that really wouldn't work well for him.

"Regardless, I will be taking Sam with me," said Grandma, "Unless he would rather…"

"Oh HELL no, I'm going with you!" I said quickly.

Grandma smiled.

"Good boy," she said, "Now, what to do with you…"

She tilted her head, then turned to the edge of the lot.

"I assume that you will take them?"

I frowned and was about to ask who she was talking to when someone responded.

"Yes, we will."

I frowned as Miss Militia and Armsmaster stepped out of the darkness. How long had they been there?

"They just arrived," said Rossweisse as she rejoined us from tying up the Twins.

Oh good, they had not just sat by and watched.

"Good, thats one less thing I need to worry about," said Grandma, "I would suggest that you improve your response time however. Or work on actually keeping the people you capture."

She fixed the two Capes with a rather intense glare that made Miss Militia shift and Armsmaster scowl. I noticed that they were eyeing Grandma and Rossweisse with no small amount of trepidation, no doubt due to the lack of masks and the latters choice of attire. After all, the Empire were well known for their many Norse themed Capes. I had to wonder how the actual Norse Gods felt about that, especially Odin with Allfather. Then again, if this was a world with DXD included, he was probably do busy molesting the Valkyrie to care.

Actually, that was a rather odd thought. If DXD was a thing, why were the Endbringers still around? They weren't so strong that the likes of the Satans or Leader Class couldn't beat them...right? Then there was Scion who...actually, now that I think about it, I hadn't actually heard that much about Goldenrod, other than a bit in my history class. I'd have to check up on that.

I shook the thoughts off and refocused on the here and now. Knowing what I did about Armsmaster, he was probably about to stick his foot in his mouth, likely to demand we go with them so they could try and get me into the Wards or something. Even considering I wasn't I Parahuman, there was no way in hell I'd be joining up with the Wards. Not when there were SO many other organizations available on the Magical side.

"You'll have to come with us as well," said Armsmaster.

There it was.

"No, I don't think we will," said Grandma dismissively, "We have done nothing wrong after all and it is very late."

She snapped her fingers and summoned a Teleportation circle. Armsmaster tightened his grip on the shaft of his halberd and stepped forwards.

"Don't make this difficult for yourself," he growled, "We need to confirm that…"

"No, you do not," snapped Grandma, "Neither myself, nor Rossweisse have any connection with you Capes and my Grandson has no reason to join your Wards."

Miss Militia stepped in front of her comrade before he could speak up again.

"Please excuse Armsmaster," she said, "Its been a rather...trying night. We simply need you to make a report and possibly register. As for your...Grandson, well, I'm afraid to say that the Wards may be the best place for him. After tonight, theres no way that his identity won't be compromised and…"

I snorted.

"Oh, like thats a problem," I said, "I don't really care if I get outed or anything. Its not like I have anyone close to me they could target and my power makes hiding a tad difficult."

I patted Zwei on the head. Miss Militia looked a little taken aback by that while Grandma just chuckled.

"Well, I trust that sorts that out?" she asked, "Now, we really must be going. Come along Samuel, Rose."

She stepped through the portal with Rossweisse following her. I paused before going through and looked back at the Heros.

"I'm pretty sure you need a name for your reports and I don't fancy getting landed with something stupid," I said, "So take this for what its worth."

I grinned and jabbed a thumb at my chest.

"My names Samuel Meadows, but you can call me Slash Dog!"

Zwei barked and I turned on my heel to follow the two Valkyrie through the Portal, leaving the Heroes to clean up the mess.

 **Hmm, I originally intended this to end a tad differently...oh well, this works just fine!**

 **So yes, this is a true crossover with DXD, although with Worm being the main world, most of the events of DXD won't be happening. That said, there are a few major differences. To start with, Zion is long dead, mainly because Ophis decided she wanted his empty dimension and smashed him into dust, so we won't have to worry about him. Thats not to say there still isn't plenty to worry about though!**

 **The Endbringers are still a thing though, mainly because none of the really powerful folks can stop arguing long enough to grind them into powder as well.**

 **On a completely unrelated note, Vista is now 15, although by the logic of Anime she looks about 12.**

 **This world also works on the logic of an Ecchi Anime, so most of the female cast will likely get stripped at least once and have got a makeover. Nothing massive, but enough to make a difference in terms of attractiveness.**

 **I also intend to have a few of the cast possess either Sacred Gears or links to the Supernatural world. You might be able to guess one by the tiny clue I left in this chapter. Depends on whether or not you were paying attention.**

 **Speaking of Sacred Gears, they and Parahuman abilities are not Mutually Exclusive, although those with active Gears generally won't Trigger due to any stress that would cause the Trigger being channeled into the evolution of their Gear. Thats not an absolute rule though! Oh, and like with Sacred Gears, you need to be at least partly Human to Trigger, with the only exception being Dragon, who was the result of Tinkertech anyway so already had a connection with a Shard.**

 **On a completely unrelated note, what should I do with Freed? I cant help but think he'd likely end up teaming up with the Nine considering he doesn't actually give a shit about Devils and the like and just wants to kill a lot of people. Hell, I might even give him a Trigger Event somehow...**

 **Anyway, I'm done with this now, so I'm gonna sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **And we're back. Last chapter, someone pointed out that my depiction of Rachel reminded them of Riza Wildman from Resurrection Princess. Since I've never seen that Anime, it was unintentional, but after looking her up, I can confirm that was pretty much what I was going for, so its now canon. If only so I can do a gag later. Anyway, enjoy!**

Chapter 2

Emily Piggot was annoyed. Admittedly, that wasn't an unusual feeling for the overweight Director, but at least this time she had a good reason. Not only had someone Triggered very publicly in front of a massive number of Empire goons and three of their Capes, but two other completely unknown Capes had appeared out of nowhere, snatched up the newcomer and left after shooting down Armsmaster and Miss Militias attempts to bring them in.

"So, do we actually know anything?" asked Piggot, looking across the table at Miss Militia.

The Military Cape was actually better at research than Armsmaster, mainly because she had plenty of free time. The Kurdish woman cleared her throat and flipped through the papers in front of her, despite not needing them.

"I'm afraid we weren't able to find much information on the older woman, other than the fact her name is Gondul Sifsdottir and that she really is Slash Dogs great grandmother on his mother's side," she said, "She seems to be something of an authority on ancient Norse culture and something of an oprah fan, but thats about it."

She shuffled the papers again.

"The other woman we have more on," she said, "Her name is Rossweisse Sifsdottir, an academic high achiever. She skipped several grades and studied history and mythology at Oxford, as well as obtaining a teaching degree. There was some suspicion that she was a Thinker of some kind, but testing revealed that she didn't even have the potential to Trigger…"

Emily frowned as Battery spoke up.

"That can't be right," said Battery, "We've all seen the footage, she clearly did something to tie up Fenja and Menja!"

"Yes, I know," said Miss Militia, "But unless the results were falsified, she isn't a Cape."

"Is that everything?" asked Piggot.

"Other than the fact she was involved in an altercation at one of Bad Canary's gigs a few weeks ago that lead to a man being charged with assault, harassment and handed a restraining order, the only other thing of note is that she is apparently about to start a teaching job at Arcadia," said Miss Militia.

Piggot frowned.

"What are we going to do?" asked Dauntless.

"Nothing," said Piggot, "As much as it pains me to say it, neither of them have done anything wrong. As such, it would be...inappropriate to make any moves. I would however like someone to go and speak with them in more depth about possibly joining the Protectorate. Rossweisse may not be a Cape, but this Gondul woman certainly is."

"What concerns me most is the choice of name," said Armsmaster, "I did some research and Gondul is the name of a Valkyrie who appears a few times in Norse mythology. Plus, their surname is definitely Nordic in origin."

"You think they might be affiliated with the Empire?" asked Assault.

"Not likely," said Miss Militia, "She clearly held Hookwolf and the Twins in a great deal of contempt."

"No, I don't think shes affilated with the Empire," said Armsmaster, "I do however think she'll likely be targeted by them."

Piggot scowled. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, even worse thing.

"Well, theres nothing we can do about that," she said, "Like I said, I'd like someone to visit them at some point, so they can bring that up with them as well. Now, what about the third one, Slash Dog?"

Miss Militia grimoused and Piggot couldn't blame her. The boy represented one heck of a mess, on top of being someone of great interest to the PRT.

"Samuel Abraham Meadows, or Slash Dog, 15 years old, currently home school and the son of Lucy Sifsdottir and Bradley Meadows, better known as Hookwolf," said Miss Militia, "Surprisingly for someone his age from an Empire family, we don't have any records of him doing anything illegal, other than possibly loitering. Subtle questioning of his neighbours indicates that he either does not hold the same views as his parents or hides them very well, although we're betting on the former considering his extremely violent rejection of his Father. He seems to spend a lot of time away from home, walking his dog and has been seen a few times in the company of Rachal Lindt, AKA, Hellhound. Strangely, they seem to get on quite well."

That got a fair few reactions. Hellhound had a reputation of being abrasive at best and outright violent at worst, although to be fair, she wasn't actually that prone to random acts of violence unless she encountered someone abusing a dog. Then all bets were off.

"What do we think the chances are of Hellhound teaming up with Slash Dog?" asked Dauntless.

"Unknown I'm afraid," said Miss Militia, "Although considering how similar their powers are, its not out of the question."

"Speaking of which, what are his powers?" asked Assault.

"We're...not entirely sure," said Miss Militia, "We're pretty sure it has something to do with his dog, so the possibility is that its some kind of fusion of Hellhound and Hookwolfs power. There was a lot of gashes in the concrete made by blades a lot sharper than anything Hookwolf could make."

There was a moments silence as everyone absorbed that. The idea of someone being able to make monsters like Hellhound, combined with Hookwolfs blades was the stuff of nightmares.

"Actually, I think we might be in luck," said Velocity, "Apparently some brave soul decided to record the entire fight. The qualities terrible, but it might help us get some idea of what he can do."

Piggot indicated for him to go ahead and the Speedster brought up the main screen and started the video playing. They mostly watched in silence, although Battery did have to smack Assault over the head when he started giggling over the Twins getting stripped. He quickly stopped when Miss Militias power turned into a large, spiked flail and the kurdish woman glared hard at his crotch area.

"Well, that was certainly interesting," said Dauntless once the video was finished, "I think we can safely say that Slash Dog and Hellhound are friends and have similar powers."

"Master 6 at least," said Armsmaster, his head shifting slightly in a way that indicating he was making notes, "Along with Shaker 7 for the blades. Hmm, I wonder what the limits are on how he can create them?"

"I want to know how he got that ability," said Triumph, "I mean, I can sort of understand the dog and blades considering his Father and Hellhounds close proximity, but that ability to make blades grow seems a little off."

"Its likely an extension of his ability to make blades form on his dog," said Battery, "Although you are right that its unusual."

Piggot nodded in agreement.

"One things for sure, hes powerful," she said, "And, more importantly, unmasked. That puts him in an extremely precarious situation. I have no doubt that his relation to Hookwolf will come out just as quickly and then everyone will be trying to either kill him or recruit him. Since he'd be a nightmare to fight, I want him in the Wards…"

"That won't be necessary."

Everyone jumped as one of the screens suddenly activated, showing the image of a man in a smart looking suit sitting at a desk. For some reason, the top part of his face was in shadow, but from what could be seen, just his nose down and the black goatee on his chin, clearly showed that he was amused by something.

"Deputy Director Parsons, to what do we owe the pleasure?" asked Piggot once she'd got her heart rate back under control.

The Deputy Director of the PRT and head of R&D sat back in his seat, resting his chin on his fist.

"You don't need to worry about Sam or his family," he said, "They are more than capable of taking care of themselves. Plus, I have it on good authority that Slash Dog will soon be off the menu as it were."

Piggot frowned.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

The Deputy smirked and shifted slightly, allowing those in the room to catch a glimpse of his violet eyes.

"Lets just say that a very old friend is interested in creating a team of his own and Slash Dog is just the type of person he needs," he said.

* * *

You know, I'm not sure what I was expecting when I followed Grandma home. Maybe I was expecting something out of Thor, or maybe Skyrim, or possibly a small hut, full of glowing runes and dried herbs hanging from the ceiling. However, I didn't get any of that. Instead, after passing through the Circle, I found myself stood in an ordinary looking sitting room in an area of the city, right across the road from the Dallon house. How do I know that? Well, as we arrived, I caught sight of Glory Girl in full costume taking off from the house across the street. Somehow, I couldn't help but feel that that would end badly…

I shook that thought off for now though in favour of turning my attention to Grandma, who had just sent Rossweisse off through another circle to do...something. As soon as my cousin was gone, Grandma turned to me and indicated for me to take a seat. I did as I was told and she sat in the armchair across from me.

"I'm sure you have questions," said Grandma.

"A few," I said, "However, I think I'll let you tell me what I need to know first."

Grandma's lips twitched slightly.

"Very wise," she said, "Well, I suppose I should start with the basics. You are not a Parahuman. Your power doesn't come from the same place and its certainly not as limited…"

She proceeded to fill me in on the basics of the Supernatural world, even demonstrating some Magic and teaching me a basic cantrip to prove that she wasn't a crazy Cape. All pretty standard for a DXD fic. That said, I did have a few questions.

"Alright, so if the Supernatural exists, why is the world so fucked?" I asked, "I mean, couldn't you have done something about it?"

"Couldn't we have done something about every other conflict in history?" asked Grandma, "No, we remain hidden because we must. True, with the advent of Parahumans, its a lot easier to hide our presence by explaining what we can't hide away as Parahuman abilities, like you'll do with your Canis Lykaon and there are a lot of the younger generation who are pushing to reveal ourselves. However, our world is embroiled in just as many conflicts as the Mortal one, any one of which could potentially cause the destruction of everything. Until they can be sorted out, we must remain hidden."

I nodded slowly. That made sense, mostly. I was willing to bet that the main reason the Supernatural side was due to tradition, but Grandmas reasons also made sense.

"What about the Endbringers?" I asked, "Surely their just as much of a problem for you as everyone else?"

Grandma snorted.

"Oh, they are," she said, "There are much more powerful and dangerous things out there of course, but the Endbringers are one of the biggest sticking points at the moment. The problem is that no one can decide whos job it is to deal with the damn things and no one wants to just say to hell with it and smite them in case someone else takes it as a declaration of war. Frankly, its a complete mess and its unlikely to get better any time soon."

Yep, that was pretty much what I expected. Oh well, I dare say that, if Vali Team was going to be a thing, the White Dragon would be happy to fight something capable of sinking islands. Worst comes to worst, I dare say I could figure something out. The Longinus were capable of killing Gods, I'm sure there'd be something I could use to fight them.

"So, what now?" I asked, "I mean, I'm happy to not have to go home or with Hookwolf, but I'm not entirely sure what you want from me."

Grandma smiled.

"What I want is for you to reach your full potential," she said, "Your a good kid Samuel, I'd hate to see that get crushed out by my fool of a Granddaughter and your Father. I intend to teach you how to use Canis Lykaon to its fullest potential, how to fight like an Einherjar and how to wield Magic at least as well as Rose can."

I grinned.

"Now that sounds like fun," I said.

"Glad you think so," said Grandma, getting to her feet, "Oh, and you'll also be going to school."

That wiped the smile of my face.

"What?!"

* * *

"Ohh boy, this will not end well," I muttered as I stared up at the H-shaped building that was Arcadia Academy.

Yes, Academy, not High School. For reasons that I can only put down to Butterflys, the school was much more extensive than just a High School, instead resting on a large campus with buildings for all ages, ranging from Primary School, right up to Collage. For some odd reason, that struck a chord with me, like I should realize something important, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

It had been a few days since I'd been taken in by Grandma, during which time she'd managed to get Mother to sign the papers releasing me into her care, gotten me a placement test at Arcadia...somehow and taken me shopping to replace all my clothes, as well as pick up my uniform that Arcadia had for some reason. "Oh, don't worry so much," said Rossweisse, clapping me on the shoulder, "Your entrance exam results were top notch and the students and faculty are really nice. Hell, Granny even managed to convince them to let you bring Zwei along!"

"Yes, by claiming that we couldn't be separated due to him being my power," I growled.

Oh yes, in addition to getting into the best high school in the city, the last few days had also allowed my identity to be blasted all over the internet, including my connection to Hookwolf. Naturally, there was a lot of panicking, theorizing and even a few calls to have me thrown in prison. Because I guess having a Villain as a Father makes me one as well.

"Incidentally, how did Grandma pull that off?" I asked.

"Oh, she knows the Administrator," said Rossweisse, "I think he owned her a favour or something."

Annnd with that my mind started throwing out some rather worrying ideas. Just what sort of person could owe a Valkyrie a favour?

"Anyway, we should be getting going," said Rossweisse, "The bell will be going soon and I don't want to be late for our first day!"

I sighed and followed my Cousin into the school, doing my best to ignore the stares coming my way. I didn't really like the idea of leaving Zwei at home, but having the Corgi shaped Sacred Gear with me was making it that much easier to connect me to Slash Dog. I didn't really care that they knew I was a 'Cape' or anything, I didn't intend to wear a mask or anything, but I'd have liked to have built up a reputation of being at least nutriel before it became common knowledge…

Suddenly, a flash of red caught my attention and I turned my head, just in time to see a girl vanish up the stairs. A girl with crimson hair. Wait a goddamn min…!

My thought was abruptly cut off when I walked into someone, sending both of us crashing to the floor.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" shouted the girl I'd walked into.

"Um, sorry about that," I said, getting to my feet, "Guess I got distracted."

I offered a hand to the girl, which she ignored and got to her feet on her own. The first thing I noticed was just how short she was, to the point that she didn't look like she should be in the High School area of the Academy. However, she was wearing the green band that signified a high school student, so I guess she must be. She had blond hair cut in a short bob, green eyes and a few scars on her hands that I recognized as coming from hard training, mainly because I had the same scars on my own hands from where Hookwolf had taught me how to fight.

Incidentally, that was the one good thing the guy had given me.

The girl looked me up and down, before focusing on the Corgi currently riding on my head.

"Hey, aren't you Slash Dog?" she asked.

I sighed.

"Yes, thats me," I said, "I'm just starting today. And no, before you ask, I'm not a Villain or affiliated in any way with the Empire."

The girl eyed me for a moment, before opening her mouth. However, before she could say anything, a soft and slightly rough voice interrupted her.

"Hey Missy, get a move on!"

I bit the inside of my mouth to keep from reacting, both to the girls name and the person who'd said it. Lets address the second point first. While it wasn't impossible that there were two blondes called Missy in the city, the fact she was about the right height for the Ward and had scars from training and fights on her arms and hands indicated that this was indeed Vista. I guess Butterflys are good for more than making schools better.

However, what really had me wanting to punch something was the fact that the girl who'd called out to Missy was Koneko Toujou. No ifs ands or buts, it was Koneko, right down to the silver hair and cat shaped hairpins.

On a completely unrelated note, I just realized that the uniform was identical to the Kuoh Academy uniform from DXD. Thats...odd.

"Sorry Koneko!" said Missy, "I just ran into this guy. Literally."

I winced and rubbed the back of my head as the other Loli came up. She was only slightly taller than Missy, which was really jaring when you think about it.

"I said I was sorry," I said, "Anyway, you two have me at a bit of a disadvantage. You obviously know who I am, but I don't know you."

The two girls glanced at each other, before shrugging.

"I'm Missy Biron," said Missy, "And this is Koneko Toujou."

Both glared at me as if they were expecting me to say something about the Japanese name. Admittedly, that wasn't entirely unreasonable considering my parentage, but they'd have to be disappointed. Or pleasantly surprised.

"Nice to meet you both," I said, "I'm Sam, please not Slash Dog in school. Oh, and this is Zwei. I have no idea if the PRT or PHO intends to give him his own name, so hes just Zwei for now."

I indicated to the dog on my head, who barked a greeting.

"...dog," muttered Koneko.

I could practically see her ears laying back on her head and had to viciously supress the urge to see what she'd do in response to a laser light. I liked my testicals where they were thanks and annoying someone who could, and would, stomp them into jelly wasn't on my to do list.

"Anyway, I really ought to be going," I said, "I don't really want to be late for my first day and I seem to have lost my guide. I don't suppose that you two could tell me how to get to room 2-A, could you?"

The girls looked surprised.

"Thats our homeroom," said Missy.

Welp, thats not suspicious at all. I wonder who pulled the strings, Rias or the PRT? Either was an option considering that, as a Longinus wealder and the Grandson of a powerful Valkyrie, I was of great interest to the Devils in charge and as Hookwolfs son, I was definitely worth keeping an eye on for the PRT. This...was going to get confusing, I could tell.

"Well thats...handy," I said with a slightly forced smile, "So, shall we go?"

I followed the two Lolis through the school, pointedly ignoring the looks I was getting, until we reached 2-A, just in time for the bell to ring.

"Huh, timed it just right," I muttered as we entered the classroom.

As we did, the teacher looked up and faltered slightly at the sight of me. She was an attractive young woman with long, black hair tied up in a ponytail, fair skin and reddish brown eyes. She was wearing a vaguly gothic looking combination of a black shirt and skirt with white frills and high heeled shoes

"Ah, you must be our new student," she said with a surprisingly strong smile, "I'm Miss Castle, the English Teacher. Have you got your schedule and map?"

I nodded and held up the paperwork.

"Good, take a seat and good luck."

"Um, thank you?" I said, a little taken aback by the teachers apparent lack of reaction to having a known 'Cape' join her class.

Chances of her being Human? Fairly low by my estimation. Oh well, none of my business.

Much to my surprise, the first half of the day went by with few surprises. Oh, I attracted more than a few stares and I'm pretty sure I got hit by Glory Girls aura at one point, but no one attacked me or exploded, so I'd consider it a resounding success.

Then, lunchtime rolled around and things got...tense.

* * *

I was just packing up my stuff when the girls in the room started whispering and giggling. Curious, I looked up and immediately spotted the source. An upperclassman had just walked in, a rather handsome, blonde haired upperclassman. He had the look of a pretty boy, but I knew better than to underestimate him.

I narrowed my eyes slightly. What could Kiba want here? Wait, that was a stupid question considering he was walking this way.

"Sam Meadows?" he asked as he stopped in front of my desk.

"Thats me," I said.

Kiba smiled.

"I'm sorry to disrupt your lunch, but the Student Council wants to see you."

I tilted my head slightly. Did that mean that Rias and her Peerage were the Student Council here or did both Rias and Sona want to see me and Kiba was the best option? Whatever the fact, I'd find out soon enough.

"Its fine," I said, getting to my feet.

"I'm Isaiah by the way," said Ki...Isaiah as he led me out of the classroom, "Isaiah Knight."

I blinked. Apparently Rias sucked at coming up with names.

"Nice to meet you," I said, "Hopefully we can get along. God knows I could do with some people who don't look at me like I'm about to go Carrie on the class."

"Yeah, I can't imagine thats too pleasant," said Isaiah, "Anyway, we're here."

We stopped in front of a door and, even to my barely trained Magical senses, I could still feel the massive amount of power on the other side of the doors. Oh yeah, there were definitely two Kings in there. This was going to be...interesting.

 **And done. I feel a bit guilty about leaving it on a cliffhanger like this, but oh well. I want to finish this tonight, so you get what your given. Before I sign off, a few points.**

 **With Japan no longer a superpower, Rias and Sona didn't really have anywhere to set up a decent territory. So, and with the logic of Plot Convenience, they now live and operate out of Brockton Bay.**

 **I had plans for the Loli Duo from the start, mainly because I loved the idea of Missy and Koneko being friends. Also, is it just me or is the idea of those two working together absolutely terrifying?**

 **I...really don't think I need to spell out who Deputy Director Parsons is, do I? Yeah, Azazel's a busy bee these days.**

 **I don't really know enough about American schools to know if a uniform is common, but in this case, I couldn't resist. Plus, it saves me from having to come up with casual clothes for the DXD characters.**

 **Any guesses on who Miss Castle was based on? Don't worry, she won't have a large role, I just needed a design and that worked fine.**

 **Nepotism is great, aint it? Yeah, Gondul has no problems with pulling strings with Zeoticus to get Sam into Arcadia.**

 **Oh, and just in case your confused, Gondul is technically Sams Great Grandmother, but I don't fancy typing that all the time, so he just calls her Grandma.**

 **And with that, I'm done. Don't forget to leave a review on the way out!**


	3. Chapter 3

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **I got a lot of people pointing out that American schools don't tend to have uniforms, other than private schools. However, since I can't be bothered to change it, just assume that its a result of a slightly different history. Anyway, enjoy!**

Chapter 3

You know, there are several things I thought would happen when I realized I was reborn into Worm, but getting stared down by two Devils was not one of them! I was currently stood in the Student Council room, trying desperately not to squirm as Rias Gremory, Sona Sitri and their Peerages either stared or glared at me. Considering that most of the latter were Japanese (and no, I'm not sure why that happened) that didn't really surprise me, but considering that my current fighting skills were limited to whatever I could pull out of Zwei's arse, I was really hoping that this wouldn't devolve into a fight. Plus, even if I was a better fighter, I still wouldn't want to fight the Heirs to both the Gremory and Sitri clans, mainly because I had no intention of meeting any version of Leviathan any time soon, but also because they are rather powerful in their own right.

"Well, I must say that your not what I expected," said Rias.

I raised an eyebrow.

"What were you expecting?" I asked, "A skinhead with Swastika tattoos?"

"Oh thats not it, I was just expecting the wielder of one of the Longinus to be...taller," said Rias.

I blinked.

"Oh...OK then," I said, "So, what can I do for you?"

"We were interested in meeting the newest and hottest newcomer to our little world," said Sona, "The wielder of the Inugami of the Black Blade. It may not be the strongest, but a Longinus is a Longinus."

"I see, so you want to get some idea of my intentions," I said, "Well, you don't need to worry. I have no intention of causing either of you trouble. I will however be operating as a Cape, simply because its what people expect. And because I want a chance to take down Hookwolf."

"Thats fair," said Rias, "Its not like we really have any authority to stop you, so long as you don't do anything to threaten our Houses."

She grinned and lent forwards.

"I would like to see what your power can do with a little extra help though," she said.  
"Sorry, not interested," I said, "I'm sure becoming a Devil would be fascinating, but I like being Human."

Rias chuckled as Sona glared at her.  
"Oh well, you can't blame me for trying," she said, "Even so, the offer is there and I'd be happy to offer my assistance whenever you need it."

"Rias..." said Sona.

"More allies are always helpful Sona," said Rias, "Sam has no connection with Heaven or the Fallen. That makes him a free agent, someone who could act as an intermediary if needed."

"Well, I technically have a connection with the Norse Pantheon, and I have no idea what the future will bring," I said, "However, I am happy to return the favour. If you'll assist me, I'll offer my own in return."

Rias eyes gleamed.

"Are you suggesting a Contract?" she asked.

I grinned.

"I might still be a third rate Magician at best, but I fully intend to master everything Grandma has to offer," I said, "That said, having a Contract with the Devil Kings sister would be quite the coup for a new Magician."

"Ohh, so you know about my Brother? You are an interesting one."

She smirked and I immediately knew that there was no doubt in any world that Rias Gremory was a Devil to the core.

"Your right, being the Pact Devil of a Longinus user would certainly be interesting, not to mention your learning from one of the greatest Magic users on the planet. However, as you said, you have just begun, so I don't think it would be right to forge a Pact quite yet. Come back once you become more powerful and then we'll see."

I snorted.

"Yeah, thats pretty much what I expected," I said, "Well, no matter."

I grinned and bowed slightly.

"If thats everything, I'd like to go and get some food," I said, "It was nice to meet you all."

"Likewise," said Sona, "I look forwards to seeing what you'll achieve in the future. Oh, and before I forget, you should watch out for Victoria Dallon. While its generally accepted that you have no connection with the Empire, she can be a little...stubborn at times."

I winced. Yeah, that would likely not end well.

"We won't hold it against you if you get into a fight, but please try to keep the destruction to a minimum."

"Tell that to Collateral Damage Barbie," I muttered, "Anyway, thanks for the warning."

Sona nodded as I waved and exited the room.

* * *

I was on my way to the canteen when a hand suddenly shot out of a corridor and dragged me in, slamming me against the wall. I blinked as my mind caught up and I realized I was being glared at by a girl with bright blond hair tied up in ponytail with a black and red ribbon and green eyes. She was rather beautiful, nearly on par with the almost unnatural good looks of Rias and Akeno, and filled out her uniform extremely well, with large breasts, a trim waist and full legs.

"Oh, hey Cassie," I said, "Whats up?"

"Don't 'whats up' me!" snarled Cassie, better known as Rune, "You just left me the other day!"

"I seem to remember that it was you who attacked me," I said calmly, gently pulling her hands away from my collar, "Not only that, but I am not affiliated with the Empire and I have no intention of ever giving that impression."

Cassie looked a little taken aback.

"Wait, that was you?" she asked, "But why were you attacking Hookwolf? I mean, he is your…"

"The only things that bastard ever gave me was some fighting skills and a collection of scars," I said, "Hes not my Father, not now and not ever."

I poked her in the forehead, making her take a step back.

"You really ought to know that by now."

I turned to go.

"So thats it then?" she asked, "Your just going to turn your back on them? On me?"

I paused and glanced back at her.

"I consider you a friend Cassie," I said, "However, don't for a moment believe that that means that I won't fight you. I won't go after you in the field, but if you ever harm an innocent, I won't hesitate to stop you."

I sighed.

"I know that you think that the Empire is like some kind of family, that they all look out for each other, but the truth is that they are little more than thugs following an ideal that should have died in the 1940s. If things got difficult, I highly doubt that many of them would be willing to stand up and fight for anyone but themselves."

"Your wrong!" snapped Cassie.

"I've seen it," I said calmly, "When the going gets tough, the only member of the Empire who would actually stand and fight is Purity and I know for a fact that shes already gone. Take off those rose tinted goggles and think about why your Father abandoned your Clan."

* * *

Cassie ground her teeth, glaring at Sams back as he walked away.

"What does he know?" she muttered as she stalked off in the opposite direction, "Damn traitors never even been in a proper fight!"

She stopped next to a window and lent her head on the cool glass with a sigh. This whole situation was so damn confusing! She knew that Sam wasn't to keen on his Parents of course, it was kinda hard not to get that after spending any time in the same room as the family, but she'd never imagined that he'd turn on Hookwolf like that. Even if she didn't particularly like her Parents considering all the secrets they had kept, and still kept, from her that resulted in her running away, she never wished them harm! Hell, even now there were times that she wanted to call them or something, but she couldn't. They were the ones in the wrong, not her damn it!

Cassie scowled as she tightened her grip on the keyring she kept in her pocket. It was something her mother sent her, a cartoon bat, not unlike the one she had on her own keys. The little nicknack was pretty worthless all things considered, but for whatever reason, Cassie always kept it on her.

After a moment, she sighed and released her grip, instead pulling a can of soup out of her other pocket. She slowly drank her lunch as she watched some other kids play soccer down on the field until she was done. She tossed the can over her shoulder, not even looking as it landed perfectly in the bin without even a touch of her power (she was rather proud of that skill) and turned to leave. As she did, she noticed that her hair was starting to show roots again.

"Damn, guess I need to make another appointment," she muttered, "Damn dye never seems to last long."

She sighed.

"I really wish I didn't have such a weird hair colour," she muttered.

She kept grumbling as she headed for the library. She had homework to finish.

* * *

Lunch was...actually surprisingly good. I guess that having a Devil in charge had something to do with that? Maybe? Who knows, although I strongly suspect that it had something to do with Rias and Sona being present. Images of Serafall showing up and icing the school because of horrible cafeteria food came to mind.

Naturally, I ended up sitting on my own and attracting a fair amount of attention and whispers, which is why I was rather surprised when someone sat down across from me. I looked up and was doubly surprised when I saw it was Missy. Considering that we hadn't exactly got of on the best foot and she was a Ward, I was rather surprised that she was sitting with me. Then again, if the Proctorate intended to soft-sell the Wards to me, having me be friendly with one of the members couldn't hurt.

"Don't give me that look, I'm only sitting here because you looked lonely," said Missy without looking at me.

I blinked and smiled

"Heh, I guess I am a bit," I said, "Most people seem to be scared of me."

"Can't imagine why," said Missy, glancing at Zwei, who was eating from a bowl of dog food.

"What, Zwei? Hes harmless," I said, rubbing my Sacred Gears ears.

"If by harmless, you mean able to take on Hookwolf, sure," drawled Missy.

I smirked.

"I suppose you have a point there," I said, "Its so often the little ones you have to watch out for."

Missy's head snapped up and she fixed me with a suspicious look. I just smiled, the very picture of innocence. The fact that Zwei was also looking at her with literal puppy-dog eyes probably didn't help.

"I guess you have a point," she said eventually, "Besides, I don't really think your the type to start anything in school."

"Not with Rias and Sona breathing down my neck I'm not," I muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Missy stared at me for a moment, before her eyes slid off me to something behind me and she scowled slightly.

"Heads up," she muttered, "I think things are about to get...interesting."

"In the curse sense of the word," I muttered as I felt a wave of fear pass over me.

The effect was muted, but I could still feel it. I glanced over my shoulder and, sure enough, there was a glaring Victoria Dallon floating across the room towards me.

Incidentally, she made the uniform look as good as any of the other girls I'd seen. I'm starting to suspect that this world worked more on DXD logic than Worm logic. On one hand, that meant that willpower and screaming about never giving up (and possibly Oppai) was the way to win, on the other it meant that most female characters were in danger of getting stripped. Wait, why am I complaining about that again?

I shook my head and refocused. No one could deny that Victoria was beautiful, however she was somehow outshone by Rias and Akeno, even with the advantage of her Aura. On the other hand, I don't really think that comparing Devil and Fallen Angel looks to a Human is particularly fair, so lets move on. Her figure was impressive, although actually conceivable without the help of Anime physics, her skin flawless and her golden blonde hair and blue eyes were eye catching and made it clear where the Barbie part of her nickname came from. I had to wonder if Amy had tweaked her looks slightly or if she was naturally that beautiful. Considering the world, either was possible.

Speaking of our lovely Panpan, she was trailing behind her sister with a look of long suffering annoyance on her face. She was shorter than her sister, with her frizzy hair tied back in a ponytail, although it didn't stop random strands from sticking out, and a splash of freckles across her nose. Despite not being quite as...gifted as Glory Girl, she still had a pretty good figure. Of course she did, the only characters in an Ecchi who didn't have implausibly figures were Lolis or bookish, smart types.

Hmm, suddenly I was wondering what Taylor looked like in this world…

I quickly shoved that thought aside. I'd be meeting her soon enough, so I didn't have to wonder. Besides, I had more important things to worry about, mainly avoiding a fight between a Longinus and an Alexandria Package from breaking out in an enclosed space. I might be a weak Longinus user, but as Rias said, a Longinus is a Longinus.

"Hey, Slash Dog!" said Victoria as she approached, "I want to talk to you."

"Its Sam actually," I said, resting my chin on my palm.

Victoria scowled and planted her fists on her hips. I narrowed my eyes slightly as her Aura flared.

"I want to know what your game is," she growled.

I stared at her for a moment, before sighing and getting to my feet.

"If you want to fight, just come out and say it," I said, "Let me guess, you were going to accuse me of being no better than Hookwolf, a wolf among the sheep, right?"

Victoria looked a little taken aback at that, but quickly rallied.

"Well, are you going to deny it?" she challenged.

"Theres really no point," I said, "You've already made up your mind and I know that this'll end in a fight, one way or another. So how about we skip the posturing and get on with it."

I grinned and met her eyes as my own aura began to leak out, my eyes glowing faintly as the shadows around me began to writhe and Zwei started growling, his fur rippling and sharpening.

"Besides, I'd rather like to see if your all your cracked up to be."

Victoria narrowed her eyes.

"Is that a challenge?" she asked.

"I would have thought that would be obvious," I said.

By this point, we were attracting a fair amount of attention and there was a lot of whispering going on as the tension ratcheted up.

CLAP!

The sudden sound made everyone jump and turn to see Sona and Tsubaki stood in the door.

"Thats enough you two," she said, "If your going to fight, do it outside or in the Gym."

"Wait, your OK with this?" asked Amy, looking rather stumped.

"Well, its pretty much inevitable from what I can see, so I might as well try to keep the destruction to a minimum. In school, Victoria will at least hold back enough to not blow holes in the wall."

She glared at Victoria over her glasses.

"Right?"

"R-right," said Victoria, her voice faltering slightly.

I honestly can't blame her. Even if I didn't know she was a powerful Devil with the Leviathan as a big sister, I wouldn't want that glare aimed at me.

Speaking of which, I really ought to find out where the Endbringers sit compared with the leaders of the Factions.

For now though, I reigned in my aura and started walking towards the doors.

"Where are you going?" asked Victoria.

"To the gym," I said, "Like she said, we might as well get this over with."

I ignored the exited whispering as I headed out of the dining hall and in the direction of the gym. I had not gone far before Missy caught up with me.

"What are you doing?!" she hissed as she fell into step.

"Dealing with an issue before it gets to big," I said, "I expected Victoria to confront me at some point and likely pick a fight, so I planned to get it over and done with as soon as possible."

"By fighting her?" asked Missy, "I didn't know you had a death wish!"

I snorted.

"Oh please, theres no need to be so dramatic," I said, "Besides, I might not have had my powers for long, but I do know what I'm capable of."

Missy growled in annoyance.

"Look, I like the idea of seeing someone knock Victoria off her high horse as much as the next girl, but have you honestly thought this through?" she asked, "She's an Alexandria Package, hell, she's known as Alexandria Junior for a reason! Your a Master, all she has to do is get past your dog and your history!"

I smirked.  
"Is that what you think?" I asked, "Sorry to disappoint, but I'm far from weak close up. She might be an Alexandria Package, but there's no such thing as an indestructible opponent. Everyone has a weak point if you know where to look."

"Of all the...fine, but if you get your teeth punched in, I'm gonna say I told you so!" said Missy as we reached the gym doors, before stomping off.

"Good thing I won't be letting her touch me," I muttered as I stepped into the gym and pulled out a pair of black fighters gloves with a Magic Circle on the back.

They had been a gift from Grandma as a temporary stopgap until I was skilled enough to make my own. As a Human, I couldn't use Magic like most types of critter in the world. As you probably know, Magic is very much a form of applied Mathematics and was actually more of a science than an art, which meant that most people wouldn't be able to do more than simple cantrips without some kind of focus. Generally, that was some form of Magic Circle to help guide the energy, combined with simple namonics, ranging from movements to incantations, although Grandma did tell me about a group who used wands containing a biological core from a powerful Magical creature (and no, I didn't ask more in case she told me it was the Wizarding World). The more skilled the Magician, the more they could achieve with a circle because they got better at guiding and forming Magic as the mind became better at making calculations and the user learnt more about channeling Magic to achieve the results they wanted. I was lucky because, despite being Human, the fact I was descended from a Valkyrie meant that I'd always have an easier time of channeling and shaping Magic, helped along by my Sacred Gear.

Even so, as I was at the moment, I required a fairly complex Circle to do more than the most basic, although the low level training Grandma provided did help me learn the basics of the runes and symbology that went into crafting Magic Circles. Even so, they'd be enough to give me an edge in this fight, even neglecting to note the fact that I highly doubted that even Glory Girls barrier could withstand the God Slaying power of my blades.

I pulled on my gloves and briefly activated the Circles to make sure they were working, before stretching. What? I wasn't about to get into a fight like this without making sure I wouldn't pull something.

It didn't take long for Victoria to arrive with Amy and a handsome boy I deduced was likely Gallant on her heels, apparently trying to get her to calm down. At the same time, a number of students started trickling in, all chattering and prepping phones. Guess they were interested in seeing how this'd go down.

"I'm surprised you actually showed up," said Victoria.

I blinked.

"I was here first," I said, "Oh whatever, I don't feel like exchanging insults. Zwei?"

My Sacred Gear barked and transformed into smoky darkness that quickly reshaped itself into a slightly curved, single edged blade that resembled an over large katana with a jagged, manji shaped hilt and red runes down the spine of the blade. Actually, it looked a lot like the third version of Tensa Zangetsu, other than the runes and lack of chain on the hilt.

"I probably shouldn't be using a weapon I'm not familiar with, but I get the feeling that if I don't you'll just get pissed off," I said as I picked up the blade and rested it on my shoulder, "So, you ready to do this?"

"I...what?" said Victoria, staring at my Sacred Gear, "How did you…?"

"My power isn't to empower my dog, my dog is my power," I said, "I'm sure the PRT has plenty of ideas as to how my power works, but I can guarantee that they are 100% wrong."

Victoria narrowed her eyes.

"Is that so?" she growled, cracking her knuckles, "To bad I don't care about that. Lets just get to it already!"

And with that, she launched herself forwards, her fist drawn back in an impressively telegraphed attack. I held up my free hand and activated the Magic Circle.

"Panzerschild," I muttered.

The circle flared at a black and red triangle flared into existence, just in time to catch Victoria's fist with a loud clang. I blinked. I...honestly hadn't been expecting that to work. Even among Human users who were stuck with using prebuilt spells and for who Magic was more of a science than an art, there was still a certain amount of unpredictability involved, especially in those with Non-Human backgrounds. Normally, that just resulted in magic being a different colour than normal, but apparently in me it meant I could pull off spells from Nanoha. I wonder how far that went? Maybe I could hit Victoria with a Befriending Beam?

I shook that thought off for now though. I'd see about blasting Capes with BEAMS OF FRIENDSHIP!™ at a later date, for now, I had a fight to focus on. I twisted my arm, forcing Victoria back slightly, before stepping forwards and stabbing forwards. My inexperience at fighting with a sword and shield tripped me up slightly and I only managed to catch a few strands of hair. Victoria didn't seem to notice, but I sure as hell did. Apparently I was right, her shield couldn't stop my Sacred Gear.

Victoria shot back as I pulled my arm back and dismissed my shield. She looked a little incredulous.

"You can make force fields as well?" she asked.

"I can do a lot of different things," I said, "Like I said, the PRT is almost certainly wrong about what I can do."

Victoria scowled and charged again. This time, I ducked under her wild attempt to punch me, my sword flashing in the same movement. A moment later, we were once again on opposite sides of the gym, both breathing lightly.

I cocked my head on one side.

"On a side note, you really should not telegraph your attacks so much," I said, "It makes it easy to see them coming and counter. You can power through with your invulnerability, but if you ever come up against someone who can counter that, you'll be vulnerable."

At that exact moment, Victoria froze as the shallow cut I'd inflicted on her cheek opened up and started bleeding slightly. There was a startled gasp from the audience at the sight of Alexandria Junior being harmed by the newbie and I noticed that a few of the Wards and even some of the Devils tensed slightly. Amy even took a few steps forwards before Dean pulled her back.

Victoria slowly reached up and pressed a hand against her bloody cheek, staring at the red smear on her hand for a moment, before looking up at me. I immediately caught the look on her face and reddening of her cheeks and sighed.

"Ohh boy, this is gonna end badly," I muttered.

I was right. I don't know if it was because I pointed out her obvious weakness, because I'd managed to cut or if it was a combination of the two, but Victoria let out a yell of fury and charged. Now there wasn't even a hint of fineness, just raw fury and endless attacks. Fortunately, I was ready for it since I had expected something like this to happen. I conjure a few more Panzerschilds to hold her back for a moment, before spinning my sword and driving it into the floor.

"Schwarzwald Reisszahn!"

The ground beneath my sword rippled and turned black as the shadows in the room began to shift and ripple. Then, they erupted and Victoria was forced to pull up as a forest of black blades shot out of the ground, forcing her to dodge since she couldn't rely on her shield. Even so, there were a few near misses that, naturally, started cutting up her uniform.

I ignored that however as I pulled my sword free and jumped. Before Victoria could react, I was in front of her, my sword already in motion. A moment later, we both hit the ground. Victoria crumpled, holding her stomach and gasping while I just dismissed the forest of blades and let my sword transform back into Zwei.

"Vicky!"

I glanced over my shoulder as Amy and Dean dashed to the downed Brutes side, the former taking her sisters hand. She was wasting her time, there was nothing for her to do.

I smirked slightly as Victoria slowly uncurled, revealing that, other than the small cut on her cheek that had already stopped bleeding and a few slashes in her clothes, there wasn't a scratch on her.

"You don't actually think I'd gut a fellow hero in what amounts to a training spar, do you?" I asked as I caught the looks on the three Heroes faces.

"You used the back of the blade," said Victoria.

"Would you have prefered an energy blast that would have blasted a hole in the ceiling?" I asked, a Magic Circle spinning to life over my hand, "Cus I can do that to."

"Please don't," said Sona as she approached with Tsubaki, "The faculty don't mind people using the gym for sparing, even if they are Capes, but you will get in trouble if you start blowing holes in the walls."

"Eh, that was a last resort," I said as the circle vanished, "Besides, I'd make a terrible Magical Girl."

That got me a lot of strange looks, which I completely ignored. Sona apparently got it because she was doing her best to hide a smirk. Then again, being friends with Rias, she probably would.

"You do know that this is going to attract a lot of attention," said Sona as everyone started trailing out, chattering excitedly, most of whom were messing with their phones.

"I do," I said, "But I honestly don't care. I'm already outed and have very publicly opposed the Empire. I need to make sure that everyone knows I'm not someone to be trifled with."

Sona stared at me for a moment, before she nodded.

"I understand," she said, "Just make sure you don't push to hard. It would be a shame if you died because of it."

"I'm sure," I drawled, pulling out the flyer that had been slipped into my pocket, "And neither your or Rias would take advantage of that."

Sona smiled sweetly.

"We are Devils," she said and walked away as the bell rang.

"Yes you are," I muttered.

* * *

The rest of the day was...interesting. I'm not sure what had changed, but most people seemed to have got over their fear of me, so I found myself fielding a lot of questions from my classmates whenever there was a free moment for them to ask them. I also got a few congratulations for showing Glory Girl who was boss, mostly from girls who looked like they were disgruntled over the Cape taking the Queen Bee position, although Isaiah and Koneko both congratulated me in their own way and Missy seemed ecstatic at seeing her 'rival in love' getting beaten by a newcomer. Needless to say, by the end of the day, I was glad to be heading home.

* * *

"I'm home!" I called as I dropped my bag next to the door and started taking my shoes off.

"Come in here Sam, theres someone who wants to meet you in here," said Grandma.

I frowned as I finished taking my shoes off and followed her voice into the sitting room.

"Really? Who...is...it?" I trailed off as I entered the room and found my Grandma sitting with an old man with a long, white beard.

I recognized him immediately, mainly thanks to the Magic Eye taking the place of his left eye and the fact he had a Valkyrie beside him.

"Sam, this is Lord Odin," said Grandma, "My lord, this is my Grandson, Samuel."

"Ahh, the holder of the Canis Lykaon eh?" said the old God, stroking his beard, "Interesting…"

"Nice to meet you sir," I said, bowing slightly.

"BWAHAHAHA, well, aren't you a polite one?" he said, "Yes, I think you'll do nicely."

I tilted my head on one side.

"Nicely for what?" I asked.

Odin grinned.

"Well, I'm sure that your aware of the other Factions, yes?" he asked.

I nodded.

"I met the local Devils today," I said, "They both made offers, but I'd rather stick as a Human for now."

"Ahhh, thats good," said Odin, "Azazel said that you'd likely get offers from those lasses and I was hoping you wouldn't take them up on it."

He cleared his throat.

"As I was saying, I would like to offer you my patronage for a team," he said, "I'll provide you with resources, equipment and training and in exchange, you act as my representatives in this world."

I narrowed my eyes.

"Why?" I asked.

Odin scowled.

"Because things are getting messy," he said, "The Endbringers are a danger to everyone, whether they wish to admit it or not. However, until such time that a decision is made, I cannot act to deal with them. Besides, the Norns believe that a great change is coming soon and I refuse to be left out. I need a force who can operate on Midgard without getting the other Pantheons knickers in a twist."

"I see," I said, "So, do you have anyone in mind for this team or is it just me?"

Odin grinned again.

"I have one person, but the rest are up to you," he said, "You will be the leader since she isn't really suited for the role. I trust you'll be able to keep her in line."

I frowned.

"Who her?" I asked.

Odin smiled.

"You can come in now!" he called.

Immediately, the shadows in the corner of the room started to ripple, not unlike when I used my power, before a figure stepped out of them. She was a beautiful girl with dark skin, high cheekbones, a long neck, large breasts and a purple streak in her hair and was wearing ripped denim shorts over neon green fishnet leggings and a strapless top.

I blinked. It couldn't be…

The girl grinned and held up a hand.

"Yo, nice to meet you Slash Dog," she said, "I'm Aisha Laborn, the wielder of Night Reflection. You can call me Imp though."

I sighed. Well, this was going to be both a pain in the rear and a great help considering who I was planning on recruiting first.

 **And done. Well, that was fun. I'm sure I'll get some reactions for that, but I honestly don't care. I had plans to give Aisha a Sacred Gear from the start and shes far from the only one. Hell, Taylor's powers actually a Sacred Gear in this world. Which one? Well, lets just say we've already seen it activate.**

 **Yeah, I see no reality where Sona and Rias wouldn't want to meet the new Longinus User and likely try and recruit him. To bad he has no intention of joining the Devils with any permanence. There is a high probability that he'll make a Contract with Rias in the future though.**

 **Cassie is suffering from a case of cognitive dissonance and denial. She doesn't actually believe in the Empires views, but a mix of parental problems and getting completely the wrong first impression of the Empire has resulted in her latching onto the idea that they are just defending themselves from those attacking for no reason. Incidentally, can anyone guess who her Mother is? I'd be surprised if you can't guess WHAT she is, but not who. She is a character from a Manga, but not DXD.**

 **Missy is...well, she can be a little standoffish. A mix of her Parents being horrible parents and arguing all the time and being characterized as a 12 year old by the PR department for...reasons has resulted in her becoming short tempered and a little aggressive. Plus, I'm kinda using Koneko as a base for her, so expect some Pervert Beating in the future.**

 **Vicky seems like the type who'd latch onto the fact that someone 'should' be a Villain and run with it, despite evidence to the contrary. Shes like her Mother like that. That said, she and Sam will become allies in the future.**

 **Incidentally, there is a reason that the faculty is fine with fighting in the gym, so long as nothing gets blown up and its not because the boss said so. You'll probably figure it out once I start introducing some teachers.**

 **If your wondering why he was so willing to reveal information about his powers, its because he is reasonably assuming that the PRT cant really do anything to prepare for a Sacred Gear and actual Magic.**

 **No, I will not stop having Sam name his attacks, so don't even ask. Oh, and I'll be drawing inspiration from Nanoha and other similar Anime. Expect someone to get hit by a BEFRIENDING BEAM at some point.**

 **Sams sword was able to cut through Glory Girls shield because its capable of killing a God. Note that that doesn't mean it can just cut right through any defence or whatever. To be honest, its going to be pretty arbitrary as to what it can damage and what it can't. No, I will not apologize for that!**

 **Odins here! I dare say he'll be perving on someone soon enough. I pretty much planned from the start for this to be a thing, along with his first recruits being the Undersiders and Aisha, who also had Night Reflection right from the start.**

 **Anyway, this is done now, so don't forget to leave a review!**


	4. Chapter 4

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **And we're back. Since this chapter includes a minor altercation with Empire thugs, expect some foul language. Enjoy!**

Chapter 4

"So, where exactly are we going?" asked Aisha as we walked through the Docks.

"To find our next recruit," I said, "I'd like to try and use Odin's connections to sort out a friend of mines problems."

"You mean Bitch, right?" asked Aisha.

I glanced at her.

"Thats right," I said.

The Shadow user grinned.

"In that case, I think I know some other people who might be interested."

I raised an eyebrow at her. I had a feeling I knew where this was going, but I couldn't exactly cut her off with suggesting her Brother. I had no doubt that Aisha made a habit of hiding in the Undersiders loft, listening in on their 'secret' meetings. It seemed like something she'd do.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Bitch is part of my idiot Brothers Villain team," said Aisha, "The moron decided that the best way to try and get custody of me from Mom was to get a job as a superpowered goon for a wannabe Bond Villain with a hard on for recruiting people at gunpoint."

I blinked. OK, so she spied on Coil as well.

"I bet that all four of them would be willing to work for you and the Pervy Geezer if you offered to help them out."

I raised an eyebrow. I knew that Imp wasn't big on authority, but it was a bit of a difference between a teacher and a God. Then again, her nickname for Odin wasn't exactly inaccurate and I suspected that Odin would just laugh and flip her skirt up when he heard it.

"Plus, they did kinda piss off Lung the other day, so they'll need someone who won't abandon them the moment they become inconvenient," continued Aisha, "Plus, their pretty good and I like screwing with Tattletale."

Aaaand that was the more likely reason she wanted me to recruit the Undersiders.

"You do know we're going to be acting as...perhaps not Heroes, but at least neutral, right?" I asked, "Having known Villains along would make things...difficult. I can deal with Rachels problems because they won't stand up under scrutiny, but if they've done to much then…"

Aisha snorted.

"They're only Villains because the PRT doesn't like people stealing from Villains without arresting them and Armsmaster got a bug up his ass when they refused to listen to him," she said, "So far, they've only hit Villains or places that were fronts for the gangs."

"Fair enough," I said, "I guess it couldn't hurt to ask."

Aisha grinned and pulled out her phone.

"By the way, did you hear about the giant lion that was seen running through town last night?"

I nearly tripped over my own feet at that.

"What?!"

"Yeah, its all over PHO," said Aisha, "Some folks are saying they know the girl in question. Tin Mothers swinging her Banhammer like Thor fighting Frost Giants, but its pretty much pointless by now."

I stared at her, completely stumped. Where the fuck did a goddamn lion come from? Also, what was with that simily? Oh whatever, I'd deal with it later.

"By the way, does your brother actually know you have powers?" I asked.

"Are you joking?" said Aisha, "If he knew, he'd probably try and get me into the Wards. Or his own gang. I have no interest in working with stuffy adults looking over my shoulder thought."

"Um, hows this any different?" I asked.

"Well, the Pervy Geezers hardly what I'd call stuffy and you're much too interesting to pass up the chance to get to know you," said Aisha with a grin, "Although I could do without him trying to peek on me…"

I twitched. Why did I suddenly get a feeling of impending doom? Oh yeah, Tattletale wore a skintight suit and would probably ask to meet Odin personally.

"By the way, how did you meet Odin?" I asked.

Aisha snorted.

"My Sacred Gear activated when one of my Mom's 'boyfriends' decided he wanted to try the younger model," she said, "I thought I'd Triggered when my shadow came to life and took his head off, but Odin and Sketha were in the area and apparently sensed it. They came and helped me get away. I didn't really believe them at first, but then Odin took me to Asgard and introduced me to Eir and Frigg and, well, its kinda hard to argue with something like that."

I snorted. That was an understatement, although I wasn't sure why Odin would do that considering that Night Reflection was a normal Sacred Gear. Then again, Sacred Gear users were technically rather rare, so most of them would get snapped up by whatever faction encountered them, so maybe that was it.

"By the way, Bitches kennels just a couple of blocks away," said Aisha, "If we want to talk to her, we should hurry."

"How do you know shes there?" I asked.

"I can use my shadows to sense the locations of people within my area of influence," said Aisha.

"Huh, neat trick," I said.

"Yep," said Aisha with a grin.

"Although, if you could locate Rachel, why haven't you mentioned the idiots who've been following us for the past ten minutes?"

"Because I knew you'd already noticed them."

"Fair enough. So, shall we deal with them before we meet up with Rachel?"

"Sounds good."

We both stopped and turned to face the small gang of Empire skinheads who had been following us. There were 20 of them, all armed with everything from bats to pipes and a couple of guns, but nothing that high calibur. I had to wonder just what they planned to achieve with just that considering I wasn't exactly hard to recognize and it was well known that I was a Cape. Guess they thought numbers would help them? Or maybe they were under the mistaken impression that Aisha was powerless. As we turned, the thugs faltered slightly, before slowly spreading out and attempting to look big and intimidating. They were certainly the former, but not so much the latter.

"Can we help you gentlemen?" I asked as Zwei started growling and Aisha's shadow started to shift unnaturally.

The apparent leader of the thugs, a hulking man with a shaved head and bulging arms covered in obscene tattoos, sneered and spoke up.

"You know, I didn't think you could sink any lower Meadows," he said, "Not only do you turn your back on the cause, but now we find your fucking a fucking nigger!"

I blinked.

"Um, shes not my girlfriend," I said.

"Damn right, I don't swing that way!" said Aisha with a grin.

I shot her a look.

"You do realize I was hoping to get out of this without having to cut these idiots to pieces, right?" I grumbled.

"Really? Cus I didn't," said Aisha, "Come on Dog boy, wheres the fun in letting idiots run free when we can clean out the gene pool some?"

I sighed.

"Alright, fine, just don't kill them," I said, "Plus, it'll be nice to see what you can do."

Aisha smiled radiantly at me, before turning back to the thugs and starting forwards. The skinheads seemed a little taken aback, before they burst out laughing.

"You think you can take all of us little girl?" sneered the leader, "HA! What can a nigger bitch like you do?"

Aisha stopped, her smile not disappearing.

"Quite a bit actually," she said, "Like this."

She tapped her foot and the shadow below her feet rippled and started climbing up her legs, forming into boots, trousers, a belt, a shirt with built in gloves, a scarf that rippled and snapped in an unfelt wind and looked like it was made of jet black smoke and finally, a hood/mask that completely hid her face, leaving nothing but glowing yellow eyes. I raised an eyebrow. That was actually a pretty neat trick. It wasn't a Balance Breaker or anything, just an application of her ability to control shadows.

Then, the shadows around the thugs rippled and more figures emerged, each one identical to Aisha. Now that was really impressive and showed just how smart she really was under her impulsive nature. I had to wonder just how long she'd spent working with her Sacred Gear to be able to use it like that.

"Still think I can't do anything?" asked Aisha, her voice issuing from all of the shadowy figures.

"Shit, shes a cape!" yelled one of the Skinheads.

"No shit Jackass," said Aisha, "I'm Imp, make sure you remember it!"

Then, the darkness fell over the gang like a wave. Thanks to my own connection to the Shadows, I could get some idea of what was going on, but it was mostly just Aisha taking down all the goons quickly, efficiently and painfully, starting with those with guns and then moving onto the others. It was clear that she was somewhat skilled in unarmed combat, on top of being quick and incredibly strong.

One of the interesting things about Sacred Gears is that all of them, with the exception of those that could only affect the Human World, affected the body in some way. Just having one in your body, even an inactive one, put strain on your body, making it naturally stronger than a Human without one. You would never find an overweight Sacred Gear user, especially not if the Gear was activated. Many also served to basically remove the natural limits of the Human body, which is why it was possible for people like Siegfried to match a Knight's speed in combat, even taking into account the fact he was technically an Artificial Human. The stronger the Gear, the more the effect, with a Longinus having the most affect. That was also the reason why I was able to match Victoria in our spar. I wasn't superhuman and wouldn't be beating a Rook or a genuine Brute in an armwrestling match anytime soon, but I was definitely a lot stronger than your average 15 year old.

I glanced at my watch and sighed.

"Oi Aisha, hurry it up!" I called, "I want to get this done before the sun goes down!"

Instead of responding, the cloud of darkness seemed to bulge slightly, before it imploded, sending the thugs slamming into walls, lamposts and sliding across the ground, each one covered in bruises and minor cuts and completely unconscious. Aisha rose out of the shadows next to me, her shadowy costume melting away as she stretched.

"Man, that was fun!" she said with a grin, "Now I know why so many Capes go out and beat up morons in dark alleys!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Please don't do that," I said, "Or at least, make sure you aren't caught. I'd hate to lose my first teammate because you did something stupid."

"Awww, nice to know you care Doggy!" said Aisha with a grin, hugging my arm between her breasts.

I sighed and pinched my nose with my free hand as I tried to keep from blushing. From Aisha's giggles and the heat in my cheeks, I didn't succeed.

* * *

It didn't take much longer to reach the warehouse Rachel had taken as a kennel for her dogs, which apparently held rather a lot judging from the noise. As we approached, I raised a hand to knock, but before I could, the door opened to reveal Rachel with Angelica at her heels. She glanced between me and Aisha, before stepping back and indicating for us to come in. I raised an eyebrow, but did so. How had she known we were coming? I couldn't think of a single reason that she'd know unless Aisha had told her through her Shadows, but considering the Night Reflection holder looked as surprised as I was, that wasn't likely.

The inside of the wearhouse was surprisingly clean and didn't smell that much considering the large number of dogs present, although it was rather noisy. A large part of the room was fenced off, giving the dogs a large area to roam free, and was full of various dog toys and bowls of water and food. Dogs of all breeds, most of them baring signs of past abuse, were running around the area, playing and generally having a grand old time. Another area was taken up by a few large cages that held more dogs, these ones obviously untrained and likely still to feral for Rachel to allow in with the others.

I was broken out of my examination of the warehouse by a startled intake of breath from Aisha. I turned and was rather surprised to see Rachel had got right in Aishas face. For a moment, the red-headed dog user stared at Aisha, before she backed off.

"Your Brians sister," she said.

Aisha looked surprised.

"Um, yes, but how did you know that?" she asked.

"You smell like him," was the reply.

Aisha and I glanced at each other as Rachel padded over to where bags of dogfood were piled up near the enclosure.

"Smell like him?" whispered Aisha, "Whats that supposed to mean? I thought her power was just to enhance dogs?"

I shrugged.

"No clue," I said, "Maybe theres more to it than that?"

It wouldn't be the first time after all. Hell, the PRT got the basics of Rachels power wrong, would it be that surprising to know they screwed up more than that?

"What do you want?" asked Rachel suddenly, making me shake my head and get my thoughts back on track.

"Right, think about that later," I muttered.

I cleared my throat.

"I have an offer for you Rachel," I said, "I've been asked by a family friend to put together a team to…"

"I'm in."

I blinked. Well...that was easy.

"What? Just like that?" asked Aisha, "You don't even want to know what its about?"

Rachel glanced back at us and frowned.

"I'm not an idiot," she said, "I know I can trust Sam, but I can't trust my current boss. So long as I can keep my dogs, I'll happily work for you Alpha."

Alright, where the hell did that come from? I didn't think I'd made that much of an impression on her!

"Why Alpha?" I asked.

Rachel stared at me, before looking at Zwei.

"You are the strongest dog," she said simply, "Perhaps not yet, but you will be."

Then she turned back to the dog food. I stared at her. Did she know about my Sacred Gear? How? She wasn't connected to the Supernatural world, was she? Damn, this was so confusing!

"A-anyway, that wasn't all I wanted to ask," I said.

Rachel looked back at me, once again giving me the impression of a big dog.

"I was hoping to recruit the rest of your current team," I said, "Mainly because Aisha wants to keep her Brother out of trouble, but also because they seem like they'd be good teammates. Would you mind introducing me to them?"

Rachel stared at me for a moment, before she nodded.

"Help me finish and we'll go," she said.

Aisha and I glanced at each other again, before I shrugged and headed over to join Rachel with Aisha following a moment later.

* * *

Lisa Wilbourn groaned as she sat back in her chair, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to shift the headache she could feel building. No matter what she tried, she just couldn't figure out what Coils power did, other than the fact it was some kind of Thinker ability. She was starting to get desperate.

Up until now, they'd been hitting low level targets that belonged to Villains, which put them relatively low on the totem pole, but it was clear that Coil was slowly increasing the difficulty and thus, visibility of their heists and eventually, that would make them far more vulnerable if they stole from the wrong person or they became enough of a threat for the PRT to actually put some effort into catching them. Once that happened, they were fucked and Coil could easily have them...disposed of as soon as they were no longer useful.

Lisa groaned again and got to her feet. This was getting her nothing but a headache, so it was best to take a break before she pushed her power to far and incapacitated herself again. She left her room and headed for the kitchen, nodding to Brian, who was reading through some paperwork at the table, and glancing over at where Alec was staring at a pot noodle that was steaming lightly.

"Wheres Rachel?" she asked.

"With her dogs I think," said Brian.

"Hnn, I hope shes not going after Hookwolfs Dog Fighting rings again," said Lisa, "She nearly died last time…"

She trailed off as the buzzer connected to the front door went off.

"Huh, guess shes back," said Alec disinterestedly as he peeled back the top of his meal and picked up a fork.

He had just taken a mouthful when their last teammate entered the room and glanced around at them.

"We need to talk," she said shortly and walked back out again.

The other three Undersiders glanced at each other in confusion. None of them were particularly close to the dog-girl, her standoffish nature and short temper prevented that, and as a result, none of them had ever seen her do anything quite like that before. After a moment, Brian stood and headed for the living room with Lisa following him. Alec sighed and picked up his noodles to follow his teammates.

The three Undersiders entered the living room and immediately froze when they saw the little black and gray corgi sniffing at Alecs console collection and the teenager leaning against the couch, looking around with some interest.

"Rachel…" said Brian, his smoke already starting to leak from his hands.

However, before he or any of the others could properly react to the stranger, something dropped from the ceiling and landed on the Undersiders leaders shoulders, making him stumble as a pair of dark arms wrapped around his neck.

"Hey big bro!" said the figure with a wide, pure white grin.

"Wha...Aisha?!" spluttered Brian as he tried to regain his balance, "What are you doing here?!"

"I'm here to make you a better offer than what your current boss has," said Aisha, "Or rather, Slash Dog is."

Lisa froze.

"Wait, how do you know that?" she asked.

Aisha snorted.

"Why wouldn't I want to know who my Brother worked for?" she asked, "Incidentally…"

She bopped Brian on the head.

"You got a lot of nerve telling me to stay out of trouble while running around robbing people!" she snapped, before letting him go and dropping to the floor.

Lisa looked between the younger girl, the ceiling and Slash Dog, who was smirking at the looks on their face, before groaning and rubbing her eyes.

"Your a Stranger, aren't you?" she asked.

"Whatever gave you that impression?" asked Aisha with a smirk that would normally grace Lisa's face.

Slash Dog cleared his throat, drawing attention back to him.

"Now that the family drama and paranoia's out of the way, how about we get down to business?" he said.

Brian scowled.

"Alright, what do you want?" he asked, "And why are you with my sister?"

Slash Dog smiled and pushed off the couch he was leaning against.

"I've been contact by...an interested party to acquire my servicers in exchange for certain privileges," I said, "He's given me carte blanche to recruit who I please, with the exception of Imp here."

He patted Aisha on the head.

"Since Rachel is my friend, I decided I'd see if she was interested and Aisha suggested you lot, so I figured I might as well see if your interested."

Brian frowned.

"You do know we already have a boss, right?" he asked.

"A boss who'd happily kill you all if you every outstayed your welcome," I said.

"Plus, the bastards got a torture chamber in his basement and I'm sure I saw him looking at pictures of little girls," said Aisha.

"More to the point, my boss can offer you a heck of a lot more than Coil ever could," said Slash Dog.

Lisa flinched as Brian pasued and slowly turned to her.

"Coil?" he growled, "Our boss is _Coil?!"_

Lisa flinched.

"Yeah, he is," she said.

There really wasn't any point in pretending otherwise. Brian took a deep breath and visibly pushed down his anger.

"Alright, we'll discuss that later," he said as he turned back to Slash Dog, "What can your boss offer that...Coil can't. More to the point, who is he?"

Slash Dog shrugged.

"What do you want?" he asked, "Custody of your sister? Freedom from a yoke around your neck? To disappear and never be found?"

"The old geezers a pervert, but hes connected and powerful," said Aisha.

"As for who he is, well, you might have heard of him," said Slash Dog, "Some of his names are Alfordr, the Wise One, Wotan, the One Eyed God, Pervy Old Man…"

"Alright Samuel, I think they get the picture."

Slash Dog trailed off as the Undersiders jumped at the unexpected voice, only to stare in shock as a blue circle of runes and sweeping lines appeared on the wall and opened like a door, allowing an old man with an insanely long beard to walk through, followed by a beautiful woman with silver hair, clad in armour that looked like something Fenja and Menja would wear.

However, Lisa wasn't interested in her, not when all her focus was on the old man. She recognized the names Sam had listed of course, researching the Empire Capes and their allies had led her to a good deal of information on the Norse Pantheon and all the names were those attributed to Odin (other than the thing about him being a pervert) and for a very brief, crazy moment, she had thought that Slash Dog was talking about Allfather, the maniac who had started the Empire, but he was long dead and would sooner murder Aisha than have her work for her.

However, now that she was actually confronted by the person behind the names, she'd almost have prefered Allfather. Her power actually seemed to stall for a moment when the old man had appeared, only to start screaming at her that he was, somehow, much more dangerous than any single being in the City. Then, the visions started. War, death, blood, a towering figure in golden armour astride an eight legged horse, a gleaming city of gold atop a mighty tree, two ravens flying over battlefields soaked in blood, a huge wolf baring his fangs, a pool of black water that seemed to draw her in…

A large hand on her head suddenly drew her out of the visions and she found herself staring into Odins single eye.

"Tis best for Mortals not to look into the truth of the Gods," he said, "Your minds are not meant to see the enormity of the Nine Realms like that."

Lisa swallowed shakely as Odin removed his hand. Her legs were shaking and her skin felt hot and feverish as she slowly sank down to the floor before she collapsed.

"Are you OK?" asked Brian as he knelt down beside her, keeping a weather eye on Odin and his Valkyrie bodyguard.

Lisa gave a slightly hysterical laugh and shook her head as her power 'helpfully' made some connections that really, REALLY didn't help her current mental state. How was one supposed to take the fact that Gods and, by extension, Mythical beings of all stripes existed? Hell, if her power was right, Odin alone was strong enough to whip Brockton Bay of the face of the earth. And he wasn't even the strongest!

"What did you do to her?" growled Alec, narrowing his eyes at Odin.

Then, his eyes went wide and he took a step back.

"Wha…"

"Sorry boy, but your power won't work on me," said Odin, putting a hand out to stop the Valkyrie at his side from ripping the Masters head off, "And I did nothing to Miss Livsey. She simply saw something she really shouldn't have."

"Thats not my name," mumbled Lisa.

"Ah, my apologies," said Odin.

Lisa shook her head and took a deep breath. Then, she tried to stand up, only for her legs to not support her weight. Brian caught her before she fell and helped her to the sofa as Odin sat across from her.

"Alright, so you want us to work for you and I'm pretty damn sure you can deliver whatever you promise," said Lisa, "Next question, why us?"

Odin looked over at where Slash Dog was stood. The blonde shrugged.

"Aisha thought it was a good idea and I know for a fact that you guys are good at what you do," he said.

Lisa frowned slightly. That...wasn't entirely true. It wasn't a lie, but it also wasn't the complete truth. Still, it wasn't worth bringing it up now. Later though…

"Wait, how can we be sure hes on the up and up?" asked Alec, "I mean, I kinda like our current arrangement…"

"With a man who would happily put a bullet in your head if he had a bad day or, more likely, use us in his Bond villain style plan to take over the city?" asked Lisa, a little snidely.

"Ah...good point," said Alec.

Lisa hid a smile. Alec was just barely above a sociopath and had a great appreciation for money and doing as little as possible to get it, but one thing he did value greatly was his life and freedom.

"I can pay you well," said Odin, "However, I think I have something that you would like far more than meer monetary compensation."

"And what would that be?" sneered Alec.

"The ability to destroy your Father."

Alec froze.

"How do you…"

"I know a lot young man," said Odin, "That is my nature, my privilege and my burden."

He turned his single eye on Brian.

"For you, I can offer the chance to be more than you are," he said, "And the chance to...try and protect Aisha. I wish you good luck though, shes even worse than Loki was at that age."

"And don't you forget it!" said Aisha with a grin.

Slash Dog looked like he was having a minor existential crisis at the idea that a Human could be worse than the God of Mischief at causing, well, mischief.

"So, what do you say?" continued Odin, ignoring Aisha, "Will you agree to join my little team?"

The three Undersiders glanced at each other, before Brian sighed and nodded.

"We're in," he said, "I'm...not entirely sure whats going on, but I do know we can't stick with Coil unless we want a 9mm lobotomy. However…"

He pointed at his sister.

"I do want to know why your on the team. You don't have powers...do you?"

Aisha just grinned as her shadow stood up and started making faces at her Brother.

"You tell me," she said, "I'm not a Parahuman though."

Brain faulted.

"What?"

"Its my Sacred Gear, Night Reflection," said Aisha.

Slash Dog sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"This...is going to be a loooong conversation," he muttered.

"Oh, before we start making Lisa's head explode, we need a name," said Aisha, "For the team."

"Baskerville."

All attention turned to Rachel, who had been quietly petting Angelica while watching the conversation unfold.

"Why Baskerville?" asked Slash Dog.

Rachel pointed at the teens jacket, which had a patch on the back depicting a snarling black hound, before pointing at Zwei.

"Black dog," she said and went back to what she was doing.

Everyone stared for a moment longer, before Lisa snorted.

"As much as I hate to admit it, she has a point," she said, "Slash Dog is the most recognizable one of us, so its only right we use him as our rally point."

Everyone thought for a moment, before nodding.

"Sounds good," said Brian.

"Eh, I can't think of anything better," said Alec.

"Hehe, I don't mind," said Aisha.

Slash Dog sighed, but nodded.

"Sure, why not?" he said, "Baskerville it is."

 **And I'm going to leave this here. Next time, we'll catch up with Taylor and find out whats going on with her. Should be pretty interesting. Oh, and see if you can guess what I have in mind for her and her Sacred Gear. Hehehe.**

 **I'm not sure why Odin was in the area of Aisha's home, but I imagine it was looking for a titty bar or something. As for why he got her out, well, any Sacred Gear would be a massive boon to whoever controls it and Night Reflection isnt weak from what I can see. Don't forget, they are supposed to be rare.**

 **Before I forget, Aisha probably isnt actually gay, she was just trying to get a rise out of the thugs. That was probably pointless to say, but I dont want to get any comments about contradicting myself later if I decide to make her straight.**

 **Speaking of pairings, any suggestions from the peanut gallery? I still have no idea what I should do with this and, well, it IS a DXD story, so...**

 **I think my idea of Sacred Gears naturally making the barer stronger and able to take their body further than normal Humans is fairly sound. Most Human Gear users seem to be able to pull of feats normal Humans wouldn't be able to after all.**

 **Incidentally, Aisha has about a year of training with her Sacred Gear and with the Norse Pantheon, which technically makes her the strongest, or at least most skilled, member of Baskerville. That will change pretty quickly though. If your wondering, her shadowy costume looks like her canon one, only with a generic ninja style hood instead of her mask.**

 **So, any guesses as to the real reason Rachel's so good with dogs and keeps bringing to mind images of dogs yet? Probably not since I havent started with the really obvious hints yet.**

 **Odins not perving on Lisa and Rachel, will wonders never cease. In all seriousness, Odin has shown that he can be serious and this was definitely a good time to be so. Lisa won't get hit like that every time she encounters someone on the upper levels of power, but it won't be the last time she gets taken aback. Especially when she meets Lucifer and Leviathan. The Magical Girl, not the seamonster...huh, wouldn't that be an odd image…**

 **Anyway, time to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!**


	5. Chapter 5

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **And we're back. I'm not going to cover how Taylor got the hospital because I've already done it. If you want to know what happened and get an introduction to Regulus, go read Golden Blade Escalation in my Vault. Heheh, lets get started! Enjoy!**

Chapter 5

Taylor Hebert felt like her life was coming down around her ears. Well, technically she'd been feeling like that since her Mother died and Emma had betrayed her, but this was somehow worse. Apparently, some bright spark had managed to get some pictures and videos of Regulus, her power that took the form of a massive lion, carrying her through the streets away from the hellhole that was Winslow and posted it on PHO, which had in turn led to some of her 'classmates' recognizing her. By this point, it was practically a given that her secret identity was shot. Now her Father was discussing with Armsmaster what that meant for her and it sounded like the Wards were her only option which...wasn't ideal.

A rough tongue swiping over her cheek made her blinked and look down at the golden lion cub curled up in her lap. Despite his small size, Taylor was well aware of just how much power Regulus held, even if she still had no idea how she ended up with what amounted to a Nemean Lion as her power. That seemed...rather odd.

"Don't worry Taylor," said Regulus, "I'll keep you safe."

Taylor smiled weakly and rubbed the little feline between the ears. Maybe the Wards wouldn't be so bad with Regulus beside her…

"I understand your worries sir," said Armsmaster, sounding more than a little annoyed, "But the Wards really are the best place for her. Her identity is out and there's nothing we can do to put the cat back in the bag at this point. People WILL be after her and theres a limit to…"

"Thats enough Armsmaster," said a new voice from the door, making everyone jump and turn.

For some reason, Taylor felt Regulus stiffen in her lap and a feeling of complete and utter shock and no small amount of horror came through their bond. Taylor frowned as she tried to figure out what would have prompted such a reaction from the man.

He was tall and, while not jacked or massive like some of the Dock Workers, clearly took care of himself. He looked like he was in his 20s, with black hair with blonde bangs, a black goatee and purple eyes. He was wearing a knee-length dark blue blazer with a lighter blue dress shirt, a black waistcoat, a red tie, faded-purple slacks and black dress shoes. All in all, a perfectly normal looking man.

Stood next to him was a woman in a PRT uniform who was beautiful enough to knock anyone Taylor knew out of the park, with long, silky black hair, violet eyes.

"Deputy Director Parsons, what are you doing here?" said Armsmaster, sounding rather surprised.

"I was in the area visiting an old friend," said the apparent Director as he entered the room, "I heard about what happened with Miss Hebert and thought I'd see if there was anything I could do to help."

He turned to Danny and offered his hand.

"Philip Parsons, the current Deputy Director of the PRT," he said, "And this is my assistent, Yuuma."

He indicated to the woman next to him, who bowed slightly. There was a startled intake of breath from both Danny and Regulus, although Taylor couldn't help but get the feeling that her power was surprised for a different reason.

"N-nice to meet you," stuttered Danny, shaking both of the newcomers hands. The man blushed slightly as Yuuma flashed a smile.

Parsons smiled, before turning his attention on Taylor. Immediately, his gaze sharpened and Taylor felt like she was being x-rayed. In her lap, Regulus stood and started growling at the man.

"What do you want?" he hissed.

"Oh? So you're out, are you?" said Parsons, "Interesting…"

He eyed the lion for a moment, before he smirked and shrugged.

"I wouldn't worry little King, I have no intention of claiming your Master for my organization."

"Wha...but sir…" started Armsmaster.

"I can tell just by looking at her that the Wards would only stifle her," said Parsons, "I'm a firm believer of placing people in places where they will flourish and with Taylor, that is not with the PRT."

"What would you suggest instead?" asked Danny, sounding interested.

"A friend of mine, the one I'm here to see actually, is putting together a team of his own," said Parsons, "Its not large presently, only two confirmed, with four more planned, but they will have access to far better training than the Wards, as well as not being in the spotlight as much."

That...sounded a lot better than the Wards to Taylor. She didn't like the idea of being stood up for photo shoots. Hell, she didn't even really like the idea of wearing a spandex costume, if only because it'd make her gawky body that much more obvious.

"I won't lie to you, joining this team WILL be more dangerous than joining the Wards," continued Parsons, "Their won't be as much oversight and they won't have the same limitations, or even assignments. However, they will also be well trained and that lack of oversight will allow the members to grow much more effectively."

He smirked.

"They might even help Taylor break out of her shell."

Taylor winced at that. Danny frowned and glanced between Parsons and a slightly annoyed looking Armsmaster. Then, he looked at Taylor.

"What do you think?" he asked.

Taylor hesitated, before Regulus nudged her hand. She looked down at her power, who was frowning slightly like he couldn't believe what he was about to say.

"Go with Parsons offer," he said.

Taylor blinked.

"I thought you didn't like him," she whispered.

Regulus shook his head.

"No, its not that," he said, "More like I don't entirely trust him. However, hes not wrong about the PRT not having what it takes to properly bring out our power. With them, our growth would be stunted, but whatever Az...Parsons is offering will give us that."

Taylor frowned slightly. It almost sounded like Regulus had been about to say something else, but had stopped in time. But why would he do that?

Taylor quickly shelved that thought however. She could ask later, for now she had a choice to make.

"I-I think I want to go with Mr Parsons suggestion," she said, "The Wards...I honestly don't think they are for me."

Armsmasters lips thinned, but he nodded, albeit stiffly.

"Very well," he said, "We will of course still provide protection for your Father and facilitate your transfer to Arcadia."

Taylor ducked her head slightly as Armsmaster nodded and marched out of the room., feeling a little embarrassed that the PRT would be going to so much trouble for her, despite her not joining up. Still, its not like she was becoming a Villain or anything.

Parsons seemed to notice her feeling and gave a slightly sardonic smile.

"Don't feel bad for this Miss Hebert," he said, "Truthfully, we owe you more than you owe us."

"What do you mean?" asked Danny.

Parsons sighed and sat down in the rooms chair, rubbing his eyes.

"First, understand that this was the result of failures at multiple levels of the PRT and that Blackwell was intentionally keeping things from us," said Parsons.

Taylor and Danny glanced at each other. That...didn't sound good.

"I've taken a look at your case Taylor and its my utter shame to have to inform you that one of the...girls responsible for you being here was a Ward."

"WHAT?!"

"CALM!" roared Regulus before either Hebert could say more than that, "Do not kill the messenger."

Danny and Taylor relaxed slightly, although Danny still looked tense.

"Its Sophia isnt it," said Taylor, "Shes Shadow Stalker?"

Parsons sighed again and nodded.

"Yes, she is," he said, "I protested the decision to add her to the Wards from the start. You don't need to be a psychologist to see that the girl is a complete mental case. She is violent, aggressive, has a frankly absurd philosophy and showed no real remorse at her trial at ANY point. I knew that, the moment we took our eyes of her, she'd be doing something to hurt others. Unfortunately, my protests were overruled and her caseworker and Blackwell decided that the suffering of one girl was worth keeping a Ward in their school."

He scowled.

"Rest assured, I will NOT allow this to go unpunished."

He bowed his head.

"You have my sincerest apologies for what happened."

Taylor took a deep breath. She was angry of course, why wouldn't she be, but she could tell that Parsons at least was doing his best. She'd keep a close eye on the PRT from now on, but at least they weren't completely incompetent.

"Its OK," she said, "Your clearly doing your best. So long as...they don't get away with this, I'm happy."

Parsons straightened and smiled thinly.

"Don't worry about that," he said, "Miss Clements actually turned herself in and seemed genuinely repentant. As for Miss Barns…"

He sighed.

"Thats a bit more difficult I'm afraid. Shes...not in a good place. According to her Father, she went through a rather traumatic experience a couple of years ago and never really got over it. She was good at faking it though, so her family never noticed."

Dannys lips thinned at the mention of Emma. He knew all about the bullying by now due to being present when Taylor had named her tormentors to Armsmaster. He wasn't happy with Alan, not at all.

"Unfortunately, Hess managed to escape," said Parsons, "From what we can figure out, she was out on a...solo patrol and somehow got wind of her impending arrest. As you can probably imagine, tracking Shadow Stalker is difficult at best and shes VERY good at keeping under the radar."

"Is she likely to be a threat?" asked Danny.

"We don't know," said Parsons, "She'll likely go to ground for a while, possibly even leaving town. We'll keep our eyes open and spread the word, but to be honest, catching her is low priority at the moment. Shes dangerous, but there are plenty of more dangerous Capes in the city."

Taylor and Danny grumbled, but didn't argue. The man did have a point after all.

"That said, I think we can be sure that she won't target Taylor yet," said Parsons, "She might when she finds out just what shes capable of, but for now, it should be safe. We'll assign a guard to your home and provide tasers, just in case, but I'm afraid thats the best I can do."

Danny took a deep breath and visibly calmed down.

"I'm...not entirely happy about this," he said, "But thank you for being so upfront with us."

Parsons snorted.

"Some of the higher ups wanted to try and keep all this from you, but I think their idiots," he said, "With the attitude some of them have, its no wonder there are more Villains than Heroes."

He got to his feet with a grunt.

"Anyway, I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short," he said, "I'll come back when your released and introduce you to my friend."

"Thank you," said Taylor.

Parsons smiled at her, shook Dannys hand and left, his assistant following him.

"Well, that was...interesting," muttered Regulus.

* * *

Alec was doing something that, for him, was rather unusual. He'd left the loft. Normally, he prefered to veg out on the couch unless he absolutely had to move, but after the revelations of the night before, he was far too restless to stick to his normal habits, resulting in him sitting on a bench in a random park, deep in thought. He still wasn't entirely sure whether agreeing to switch from being a petty thief to a...well, he didn't really know, but whatever that old man had in mind for them, was such a good idea, but even the slightest chance that Odin could guarantee a way to stay well away from his 'family' and stay there was good enough for him, even if it did come from a crazy old man.

At the thought of Odin, he shuddered slightly. He didn't think that he was actually a God of course, but he was clearly powerful and could do something to stop his powers from working. Plus, growing up as he had, Alec had developed a sense for when someone was hiding a dark side and Odin had one so massive it was like an endless void. The old man definitely had hidden depths and it was only a matter of time before he showed his true colours. The only question was if he would be better or worse than Heartbreaker.

"AH!"

Alec blinked and turned in the direction of the voice, only to get an eyeful of white panties. He stared for a moment in disbelief, before shaking his head, hard. What was this, an Anime?

"Owwweee," moaned the girl as she slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, rubbing her head.

"Um, are you OK?" asked Alec, not entirely sure what to make of the situation.

He wasn't exactly used to being in situations like this and would normally have just walked on without giving it a second thought, but for some reason, he'd stood and offered the girl his hand before he'd even thought about it.

Still, the girl was pretty cute, with an innocent face, long blonde hair, green eyes and she was wearing what looked like a dark teal nun habit with a silver cross at her throat.

"Oh, grazie signore," said the girl, accepting the offered hand, "Sorry, I know I can be a bit of a bother…"

Her voice carried more than a hint of an italian accent.

"O-oh, don't worry," said Alec, "Um, do you need some help?"

He gestured to the suitcase that had come open when the girl had tripped.

"Ah, no, don't worry, I've got it," said the girl, righting her suitcase and picking up some of the items that had scattered.

Alec bent to help...and found himself holding a pair of the nuns underwear.

"AHHHHH!"

Quick as a flash, the panties were snatched from his hand and stuffed into the suitcase with the rest of it, the girls face burning red. Not that Alec was much better. What the heck was wrong with him today? Was the girl doing something? He quickly performed the mental exercises he'd developed from long exposure to Emotional Masters, only to come up empty. They wouldn't get rid of the Mastering of course, but he would at least know if he was being manipulated.

"Um, are you OK?" asked the girl.

Alex jumped slightly and quickly plastered a smile on his face.

"Oh, yes I'm fine," he said.

He quickly cast around for something to talk about, before fixing on her suitcase and accent.

"Um, are you visiting the city?" he asked.

The nuns smile faulted slightly.

"No, I'm moving here," she said, "Things back home have become...difficult recently."

Alec winced, once again noting the out of character regret that came from making the girl in front of him sad. He didn't nesersarally like the fact he was essentially a repentant sociopath, but it was hard to care when you weren't able to do so. That...was either extremely philosophical or extremely stupid.

"Do you...need any help?" asked Alec.

"Oh no, thank you," said the girl, "I was just taking a look around while I waited for my guide. Thank you for the offer though."

"Oh, um, OK," said Alec.

For some reason he felt a little disappointed about that.

"Oh, there she is now!" said the girl, "I should go."

She started to leave, but paused and glanced at him. For a moment, she looked conflicted, before she nodded slightly nad turned back to him.

"My name is Asia," she said, "Asia Argento. I hope we can be friends!"

Alec was so taken aback by the sudden proclamation that he barely managed to answer.

"A-alec," he said, "My name I mean, its Alec. And...sure, why not?"

The smile Asia gave could have lit up the dark side of the moon as she bowed and jogged away in the direction of a black haired woman in a suit and sunglasses.

"Friends huh?" muttered Alec, "That...might be nice."

He stared after the odd girl for a moment, before he sighed and stood.

"Fuck it, crazy or not, I can't leave them," he said.

As he walked back to the loft, a small, rather uncharacteristic smile appeared on his lips.

* * *

Amy looked up from her laptop as her bedroom door opened and her sister floated in, looking rather annoyed.

"She finally done yelling at you?" asked Amy.

Vicky gave her a flat look and flopped down on the bed next to Amy.

"I don't get it," grumbled the blonde, "I mean, I was just…"

"Picking a fight?" asked Amy innocently.

Vicky glared at her and opened her mouth...but couldn't seem to think of anything to say to that so she closed it. Amy sighed.

"Look, I get that you don't trust Sam, but he seems like an alright guy," she said.

"An alright guy?!" spluttered Vicky, "Hes HOOKWOLFS SON!"

"True, but you really shouldn't tar someone with the same brush as their family," said Amy, "Sins of the Father and all that. Vista seems to like him well enough and Sona and Rias both like him enough that I'm pretty sure they extended an offer to join up with them. Hell, even Tsubaki seemed impressed with him from what I could tell."

Vicky scowled at that. It was rather hard to argue with the undisputed queens of the school who were well known for having an excellent sense for people, especially when you consider that a good chunk of their friendship groups were the sort of people who'd have an actual reason to dislike Slash Dog.

"I don't know why you and Mom think your so different," grumbled Vicky, "She said the exact same thing to me. Well, as soon as she was done scolding me for getting into a fight in school in the first place."

Amy smiled and poked her sister in the side.

"And that should tell you you were in the wrong."

Vicky scowled and started muttering under her breath. Amy's smile faltered slightly. She knew her sister well enough to know that she wasn't about to abandon her ideas about Sam just yet. It'd take more than an ass kicking and popular opinion to do that. She could be stubborn like that.

"Why are you so fixated on Sam being a Villain?" asked Amy, "I mean, he hasn't even tried to hide his identity…"

She trailed off a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye drew her eyes to the house across the street as the light in one of the rooms came on. Then, her eyes widened as a very familer black and gray dog hopped up on the desk she could see on the other side of the room and the very boy they were talking about entered the room wearing nothing but a towel.

"EEP!"

The healer lunged forwards and yanked her curtains closed, making her sister jump and fall of the bed.

"Wha...what was that all about?!" spluttered Vicky.

"Um, well, I think the lady across the street has family staying," she said weakly.

"Really? Lets see?"

Vicky peaked out the window, stared for a moment, then yanked her head back, blushing brightly.

"Oh…"

The two sisters sat in silence for a moment, before they both decided to forget the conversation and try to avoid thinking about what had just happened.

* * *

Madison Clements stared up at the blank ceiling above her, not really seeing it but instead just thinking. She had a lot to think about. Mostly it was about the last year and a half and about everything she'd done over that time, how much she'd changed. Now that she was taking a good hard look at herself, she found she didn't like what she saw.

It had started innocently enough, just stealing the weird girls homework because everyone was doing something and she wanted to fit in. However, that had somehow led to Sophia and Emma thinking it was the best thing since sliced bread and before she knew it, she was part of the Trio. For a girl who'd been pretty low in the pecking order in Middle School, it was exhilarating. And besides, who cared? It was just Taylor, the weird girl nobody liked.

Unfortunately, thoughts like that led to people being stuck in lockers full of biowaste and the knowledge that, had she not been held up by her baby brother puking on her, she would have been laughing along with the crowd. That thought led to her becoming a potential cause for a girls death, whether from the Locker, another 'prank' on that level (because there would be one) or just her deciding that enough was enough. That thought led to enough self loathing and regret that it caused a Trigger Event.

Madison winced slightly as the thought brought her attention back to the slight buzz at the back of her mind. It was always there, a reminder of just what her power could do and how ironic it was that she could now control the very things that could have potentially killed her classmate.

Fortunately, the door chose that moment to open and a woman in a suit and sunglasses with long, straight black hair walked in.

"Good evening Miss Clements," she said, her voice a little clipped, "My name is Miss Smith. I'd like to remind you that we shall be recording this and that we have ways to tell if your lying. I'm sure I don't need to remind you of the penalties if you do."

Madison shook her head. She had no intention of hiding anything anyway.

"Very well then, lets begin.

* * *

Kayden shut the door to her apartment, barely resisting the urge to slam it in frustration. It wouldn't do to wake up Aster if she was asleep. She remained standing by the door for a moment, her eyes squeezed shut as she forced down the urge to cry. Kaiser was getting more and more insistent that she should return to her 'place at his side' and was starting to make mention of suing over custody of Aster. If that happened, she was fucked. Her baby would be taken away and raised to be as much of a monster as Kaiser was and likely die in a pointless fight or prison.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do. She desperately wanted to make her split from the Empire clear by destroying some of their holdings, but if she did that, Kaiser would have no more mercy. She wanted to fly up there and blow Kaiser and his ostentatious little office to pieces, but if she did that, she'd be the Cape that killed Max Anders, a respected and generous man.

Her frustration boiled over and she punched the wall next to the door, just barely holding back her power from blowing a hole in the wall.

"Kayden?"

Kayden took a deep breath and turned. Theo was stood at the end of the hall, looking at her worriedly.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She smiled weakly at her stepson, but she knew he wasn't fooled.

"He tried it again, didn't he?" asked Theo.

The smile slipped away and she nodded. She could feel the tears coming and couldn't stop them. Theo moved to her side and gently guided her into the living room, handed her a box of tissues and vanished into the kitchen. A few minutes later he was back with a cup of coffee, exactly how she liked it, which he put in front of her.

"I can't do it any more Theo," she whispered, "I can't face him. I'm...I'm just to damn afraid! I don't want to lose Aster, but I also don't want to have anything to do with that man!"

She burst into tears again as Theo joined her on the couch and pulled her into a comforting hug.

"Hey, don't worry," said Theo, "It'll work out."

He hesitated for a moment, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper.

"Here, this might help," he said.

Kayden took the paper and looked at it. It was a flyer with a complex circle, decorated with what looked like a necklace in the middle.

"We'll grant your wishes?" said Kayden, reading off the banner across the top, "If only that were true…"

She sighed and blew her nose.

"Thanks Theo, but I'll need more than wishes to get what I want," she said.

She picked up her coffee and headed to her room, leaving the flyer on the table.

* * *

Once alone, she sat down in the chair by the window and stared out at the city. Despite herself, she couldn't help but think about wishes and how nice it would be to just wish away all her problems. As she did, a shooting star shot across the nights sky.

"Heh, I guess it can't hurt," she muttered and closed her eyes, "I wish...god, there are so many things. I guess...I guess I want to be free of Kaisers grip. I want a better life for my daughter. I want to be able to use my powers to help people without having to worry about annoying Kaiser."

She felt tears pricking at her eyes again.

"I just want to be free damn it!"

Suddenly, the room was lit up with a brilliant red light from her pocket, nearly making her jump out of her skin. Before she could do more than jump however, something shot out of her pocket and Kayden saw it was another flyer, very similar to the one Theo had offered her, only this one bore a rose marking instead of a necklace. Then, the circle seemed to project out of the flyer and over a free space in the middle of the room, before a brilliant flash nearly blinded her. Kayden blinked spots from her eyes and stared at the person now standing in her bedroom.

She was a beautiful girl with long, crimson hair, blue green eyes and a figure that put her own to shame, despite being in her teens.

"Well, this is a tad unusual," said the girl, "Its rare for someone to be able to summon me directly."

She smiled and crossed her arms under her bust as a pair of spindly, bat-like wings shot out of her back.

"I am Rias Gremory, a Devil of the house of Gremory," she said, "Tell me Human, what is your wish?"

 **And I'm actually going to end this here. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but we'll find out what happened between Rias and Kayden later. Mainly because I'm too lazy to figure out how the conversation would go.**

 **This chapter was really more to get an idea of some of the things going on and set up a few things for later. We'll be back to Sam next time.**

 **So yeah, for those who didn't figure it out, this Taylor is the same one as the one from Golden Blade Escalation. That means that we have two Outsiders running around. This should be fun!**

 **Aaaand, Raynares not evil and Danny may or may not be attracted to her. Will this lead to anything? Not sure yet.**

 **I literally flipped a coin to decide what would happen to Sophia. One way or another, shes going to be locked up eventually, this just gives me the chance to have Taylor work out some issues with her at some point.**

 **...I'm not apologizing. Asia is in town and will be joining up with the Wards, although I'm still not sure what I'm going to have her costume look like. Probably some kind of robe. Suggestions for a Cape name are also welcome. I'm thinking of something like Sister Twilight. Oh, and that interaction with Alec won't be the last one. Once again, I'm not apologizing.**

 **Yes, I did imply that Carol gave Vicky a good talking to about judging Sam based on who his father is. And yes, it is supposed to be ironic. That'll be brought up later.**

 **I have no idea how likely it is for Sam and Amy's rooms to be facing each other, but I don't really care. I wanted to do that gag and what I say goes damn it!**

 **Speaking of which, Madison is now a Parahuman and may or may not have Volukinesis.**

 **See if you can guess what I have in mind for Theo and Kayden. You can probably guess considering its not that hard.**

 **Anyway, time for me to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review! Now, I'm going to go play some Dead Cells.**


	6. Chapter 6

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **And we're back. Nothing to say here, so lets get started. Enjoy!**

Chapter 6

The next day saw me sat alone at lunch once again. Not really surprising considering it was only my second day. Good god, it was rather hard to believe just how much had happened yesterday. Still, I had more things to think on than how busy last night had been, namely how to start with my Teammates. I had no doubt at all that the former Undersiders could hold their own against other Capes, but that wouldn't exactly serve them well against anything we met in the course of our work for Odin. Unfortunately, I knew that they wouldn't believe the warnings given and likely wouldn't take me seriously. Well, Tattletale might, but the others...no, I needed something to make it blatantly clear that the upgrades Odin had promised were an absolute must if they wanted to survive long enough to meet Taylor.

I scowled at that thought. I...had honestly forgotten about Taylor. Oh, don't give me that look! I'm not an SI who gets dropped in on the day or something, I actually live in this world! I'd grown up here and, believe it or not, I had problems of my own. Perhaps not as bad as the Trio, but bad enough. Besides, its not like I had any reason to know about it or be at Winslow to stop it. I felt guilty of course, but I'd make it up to her by not letting her go down the path she did in canon.

A tray clattering onto the table across from me made me look up to see Missy had decided to join me again. She ignored me and she picked up her burger and tore into it with impressive ferocity. I raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, what did that poor burger ever do to you?" I asked.

"Shadup," she growled around the food in her mouth.

She started muttering, likely not intending me to hear it, but thanks to the enhanced hearing I had due to being connected to the Canis Lykaon, I could hear that she was insulting Glenn Chambers ancestry with some very impressive epithets. Impressive enough that even I, who had grown up around Hookwolf and other...pleasant individuals, was rather impressed.

"Bad day?" I asked.

"You have no idea," growled Missy.

Before she could elaborate, another tray dropped down beside me, followed by a skinny redhead with blue eyes and a grin that brought to mind the Weasley Twins.

"Are you still smarting about that?" he asked, "You should take it as a complement!"

The glare Missy sent his way could have killed a Basilisk. Naturally, the older teen ignored it as he turned to me and stuck his hand out.

"Hi, I'm Dennis," he said, "Nice to meet you Doggy!"

I sighed.

"Great, the class clown," I grumbled, "Lucky me."

"And proud of it," said Dennis, his gron not fading at all.

I sighed again, before smiling and shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you," I said, "But please don't call me Doggy. Its Sam."

"Speaking of dogs, wheres yours?" asked another teen as he sat down next to Missy.

This one was probably a year older with brown hair and eyes and pale skin. His hands kept shifting and twitching after he put his tray down, as if he wanted to grab something and work with it.

"Delivering something," I said, "Not as good as an owl, but hes not going far. And you are?"

The boy's cheeks pinked slightly.

"Oh, sorry," he said, "I'm Chris."

I waved off the apology.

"Nice to meet you," I said, "Any particular reason you lot are sitting with me?"

"We saw you getting along with our little friend here and wanted to make sure you weren't making any moves on her," said Dennis, patting Missy on the head.

The much smaller girl scowled and smacked his hand away, using her other hand to jab him in the side.

"I really don't think you need to worry about that," I said.

"Whats that supposed to mean?" growled Missy, glaring at me.

I chuckled.

"Oh, its not that I don't think your cute," I said, "Its more that, if I had made any unwanted moves on you, I have no doubt that you could, and would, take me down a peg or ten. And thats to say nothing of what Koneko would do to me."

The three Wards looked at me in surprise, although I did notice that Missy's cheeks were ever so slightly pink.

"How do you figure that?" asked Chris.

"Scars and calluses on her hands and arms indicate long hours of punching boards, toned muscles visible on her arms are a mark of hard work to achieve fighting fitness, not looks and the way she moves tells me she knows how to fight," I rattled off, "In short Missy, I can tell from a look that you know how to fight and, more importantly, have experience in doing so. Whats more, whoever trained you was training you to fight, not show off. Someone attacks you and…"

I snapped my fist out and in a split second, Missy had deflected it with her palm.

"You react without thinking," I finished.

"You can tell all that from looking?" asked Dennis as I sat back down.

"Its not that hard if you know what to look for," I said, "You and Chris have it as well, although not to the extent of Missy. That tells me that, either you haven't been at it for as long as her, or you don't take it as seriously. My guess would be that wherever your learning to fight, its also where you met since there's no other way you could have really met and become friends, being in different years and all that."

The three Wards glanced at each other and I smirked. I'd probably given them a lot to think about and was doing nothing to stop the PRT from panicking, but I honestly didn't care that much. I mean, I worked for Odin and knew far, far more about this world than any of them could ever hope to properly understand. They'd never even be able to figure out my powers without help. That said, I probably should stop messing with them. Just a bit.

My connection with Zwei sparked slightly and I looked up to see the little Sacred Gear scampering into the dining room with a folded up note in his mouth. He weaved between the legs, table and student alike, and hopped up on the table.

"Thank you," I said, accepting the note.

Zwei barked and helped himself to the ham on my plate as I opened the note and skimmed it.

"Whats that all about?" asked Missy.

"Just making a plan with a friend of mine," I said, "Nothing important."

Actually it was. To help introduce my team to the Supernatural world, I'd asked Sona and Rias for help. The response was a suggestion for me to join Rias on her and her Peerages next job to take down a Stray since she had to introduce her new Servant anyway. There was also a teasing note that I was trying to get information on the Peerage just in case I ever had to fight them which, to be fair, wasn't entirely untrue. I wasn't dumb enough to think that we'd never cross blades, even if it was in training or a Rating Game of some kind. Likely the Azazel Cup.

I pulled out my phone, typed a quick text to the rest of my team and summoned a Magic circle that I stuck my hand through to hit send. Then I tucked my phone away and paused when I saw the looks on the Wards faces.

"What?"

"What was that?!" spluttered Missy.

"I needed to send a text, but the Faraday cage stops it from working, so I just created a portal to outside to send it," I said with a shrug, "Not that hard.

"You can teleport as well!?"

"BULLSHIT!" yelled Dennis, pointing at me with a look of comical horror on his face, "Your not supposed to keep going back for seconds at the Grabbag table ya know!"

"Says who?" I asked with a smirk, "Besides, I haven't even shown you what I can really do when I cut lose."

I frowned.

"Mainly because I don't know myself. I really need to find a better way to do all this…"

I shrugged.

"Eh, something to think about later."

I smirked at the looks on the Wards faces, before turning the conversation away from the subject of powers. The rest of lunch was spent getting to know the three, including the fact that Dennis was a complete Anime nut. Naturally, that meant that he was also a complete perv, because DXD, although unlike Issei and his friends he could actually control himself. It was fun and I could honestly say that I could see myself getting on well with the Wards. Still no way I was joining though.

* * *

Once school got out, I headed downtown to a building just off the Boardwalk that contained a bar, restaurant and, unknown to most, the new headquarters and lare of Baskerville. The building was owned by Odin and the restaurant and bar were run by a husband and wife duo who I'm pretty sure were a lot more than they seemed. The bar was manned by a hulking bear of a man with long, blonde hair, a full beard, blue eyes and hands the size of pot roasts. I'd met him briefly when Odin had shown me around the building and found him to be loud and good natured, with a hearty, booming laugh that could probably be heard from the Rig.

His wife was much less intense, with a kind demeanor and excellent cooking skills. She was gorgeous, easily surpassing anyone I'd ever met, with hair that shone like real gold, eyes the colour of the sky after rain and a figure that, obviously, was damn near absurd in how voluptuous it was. The two were also almost disgustingly besotted with each other.

Anyway, the bar and restaurant weren't really necessary, although it did provide a handy excuse to put down on Brians paychecks, but the building was enchanted to the nines with Wards, Runes and enough defence measures to make even the most paranoid Tinker nod their heads in respect. Plus, there was a training room in the basement with weaponry of all types, from traditional to modern, that I'm pretty sure Odin and Rossweisse (who had been recruited as a trainer for us) would put to excellent use.

* * *

I let myself into the building and jogged up the stairs and into the floor given over to Baskerville. The door even had the black dog crest we'd chosen painted on it. We had the entire floor to ourselves, which granted us plenty of room for our current members, as well as any future ones. Other than the bedrooms, there was also a library full of books on topics from science to Magic, a decent sized and well stocked kitchen, a sitting room, an entertainment room with consoles and game tables and a meeting room which was basically impregnable when sealed and impossible to spy on and would also double as a deployment area, all thanks to the Magic Circles inscribed on the floors and walls.

When I entered the base, I found pretty much what I expected. Alec and Aisha were in the games room watching Fantasia of all things, Lisa was tearing apart the library like a mad thing, devouring book after book on history and Magic like a mad dog, all with an eager grin on her face that was actually rather disturbing, Brian was probably downstairs in the bar (he'd taken a liking to Tony the Barman and the idea of running the place) and Rachel was...in the kitchen? OK, that was a tad unexpected but whatever.

I shrugged and quickly went around telling everyone to meet in the meeting room in ten minutes. While I was waiting, I eyed the boxes on the table with no small amount of trepidation. They were the upgrades Odin had promised for the Undersiders and, while I did trust the old man not to do anything that would hurt them, I wasn't entirely sure that he was above doing something like leave Lisa and Rachel skimpy stripper outfits or something. Oddly enough, there was also one for me, albeit a lot smaller than the others that looked like they could contain large weapons. That was a little worrying and I made a note to not let Alec near his until he knew the basics of using the damn thing.

I pushed that thought aside for now as I sat down and pulled the box addressed to me towards me. As I did, I felt a slight draw on my Magic and a Magic circle briefly flared to life before vanishing before I could get a good look at it. The lid clicked open, revealing that the inside was lined with padded foam with a pair of inserts that contained a pair of black and red gauntlets that resembled Yangs Ember Celica. I could feel the Magic that had been worked into them and, unless I was very much mistaken, they were some kind of Tinkertech.

Curious, I lifted one of them out of its cushioning and turned it over. On the underside was a crest, probably a makers mark, that looked like a stylized R formed by a serpentine dragon.

"R? What does that mean?" I muttered.

I looked into the box to see if there was anything else and spotted a card sticking out of the padding. I pulled it out and looked at it.

"Stahlfauste?" I muttered, "That means fists of steel. What…"

I was cut off by the gauntlets suddenly flashing and vanished, transforming into a red crystal pendant on a length of black twine. I stared at it for a moment, before slowly picking it up.

"Whats that?" asked Aisha as the other started filing in.

"Something I'm not sure if I should use," I said.

I shook my head and tucked Stahlfauste away in my pocket.

"I'll think about it later. For now, lets get down to business."

"Something for us?" asked Brian, examining the boxes.

"Yep, not sure what they are, but Odin came through," I said, "That said, you won't be using them until you've had at least a little training."

"Then whats the point in giving them to us?" asked Alec.

"Call it insentive," I said, "Let see…"

I picked up the list that had been left on the table.

"Thats for you Alec," I said, pointing at the longest box on the table.

The Master grumbled, but took the box and opened it to reveal...a red spear made of what looked like bone and wrapped in purple fabric. My eyes went wide and I nearly choked on my own tongue. How the actual FUCK had Odin got his hands on that?!

"Well, thats disappointing," said Alec, picking up the weapon and idly twirling it.

"D-disappointing?!" I spluttered, "T-thats Gae Dearg, the Crimson Spear of Exorcism!"

"And thats good because…?" asked Alec leadingly, leaning on the spear.

"Its a legendary weapon from Irish folklore, wielded by the hero Diarmuid Ua Duibhne," said Lisa, "Apparently, it has the power to completely negate any magic it comes into contact with. Hmm, I wonder if that extends to Parahuman abilities?"

"One way to find out," I said, "Brian, make some fog."

Brian sighed, but did as he was told, creating a small cloud of his smoke on the table. Alec, who now looked more than a little shocked at the idea that he had such a legendary weapon (and again, HOW?!), prodded the tip of the spear into the cloud. Immediately, it went transparent, only to reform when he pulled the tip back.

"Well, I'd say that confirms it," I said, "I think we'll need to do some experimentation with that…"

I shook my head.

"Thats for later though, for now, lets move on."

I gestured to the next box, this one shorter, but wider.

"Brian, that ones for you."

The Darkness user quickly opened the box to reveal a two handed war-axe with runes carved into the blade that glowed slightly and released a faint mist as Brian picked it up.

"That...I don't recognize," I said, "Although judging from the mist, I'd say it has power over ice."

I glanced down at the list in my hand.

"Apparently its called Fimbulwinter," I said.

"The winter before Ragnarok?" asked Lisa, "Interesting choice."

"Eh, I wouldn't worry about it," said Aisha, "I'm pretty sure thats a recent creation."

"More than likely," I said, "Anyway, that leaves that one for you Lisa."

"Hey, how come I don't get anything?" asked Aisha with a pout.

"You have a Sacred Gear and don't use either weapons or Magic," I said, "You don't really need anything other than that dagger of yours."

Aisha grinned and said dagger, which was nearly as long as her arm and black as the void, appeared out of thin air and impaled itself in the table.

"Point taken," she said.

"Please don't stab the table," I said, "Anyway…"

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

I looked over at Lisa, just in time to see her hold up a rather skimpy bra that looked like it would barely hide anything. I sighed. Yep, thats pretty much what I thought.

"Heheh, well what did you expect from that old pervert?" asked Aisha.

"You cannot be serious," growled Lisa.

"No, I doubt he is," I said, "Try looking underneath the harem girl outfit."

Lisa scowled, but lifted the top layer of the box to reveal a sword sitting on a folded up purple battledress, complete with an armoured to go over the top, armoured boots and gauntlets.

"Huh...thats interesting," she said, "How come I get a new costume?"

"Well, the guys are easy to upgrade with armour," I said, "Yours...not so much."

"Eh, good point," grumbled Lisa, "I still would have liked a say in it though."

"Say or not, thats Valkyrie armour," said Aisha, looking rather impressed, "You must have really made an impression on the Old Man if hes giving you some of that."

"Really? Huh…"

She pulled out the sword and I frowned. It looked...odd, almost like it was some kind of piece of futuristic tech, with a white sheath, red hilt and a guard that looked like either a metal eye or a giant screw. Despite that, I got the feeling that it was the oldest weapon in the room and certainly one of the most powerful ones.

"Whats this?" asked Lisa.

"Lets take a lo…" I trailed off, my eyes going wide as I saw the name printed on the note.

"Something wrong?" asked Brian.

"T-that sword…" I said, "Its Laevatein, the Holy Sword of Flame. But…"

I frowned.

"Not everyone can wield a Holy Sword, so what would be the point in giving you one?"

"Actually, Laevatein isn't technically a Holy Sword," said Aisha, "It has a Holy Attribute, but as it wasn't forged by the God of the Bible, its not as powerful as the likes of Durandal or Excalibur. Oh, its more powerful than any of the mass produced ones used by Exorcists or produced by a Sacred Gear like Blade Blacksmith, but still not quite up to that level. In exchange, its a lot less difficult to find a suitable wielder for it."

Everyone stared at her.

"That was...surprisingly insightful," said Brain.

"Hey, I can be insightful to!" said Aisha with a fake pout.

I sighed and patted her on the head.

"Yes yes, very good," I said, "Now, onto Rach…"

I trailed off as I looked over at my fellow Dog user and saw that she'd already opened her box and was now glaring into it like the contents had personally offended her.

"Um, Rachel?" I said, "Is something wrong?"

"I'm not using it," she growled, "I refuse."

She slammed the box shut and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her. We all stared after her in surprise. Despite her short temper and aggressive nature, seeing Rachel like that seemed...wrong. It wasn't the same feral anger she normally had, instead it was much more Human than she ever seemed.

"Any idea what that was about?" I asked.  
"I'm...not sure," said Lisa, "My powers always had trouble reading her, but I can tell you that she knows whats in the box and who its from. Its not Odin."

I frowned. For Rachel to react like that, she must really hate the person in question, but in that case, why would said person send her a weapon? Alec moved around the table and went to open the box.

"Hey, what are you doing?" asked Brian.  
"Aren't you curious?" asked Alec.

"Yes, but we shouldn't pry," said Brain.

"Come on, a little peek can't hurt," said Aisha, already behind Alec and craning her neck to see into the box.

Despite myself, I was curious enough to join them as Alec opened the box to reveal...a perfectly ordinary looking katana. Actually, it didn't look ordinary, it looked like it had been left out in the elements for a year and never sharpened since it was made. I'd be surprised if that thing could cut butter.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," said Alec, "This thing looks useless."

I narrowed my eyes at the sword. Something...something wasn't right here. Alec was right, the sword was useless as a weapon. It was in such bad condition that it would be worth more to scrap it and buy a new one, and yet...I could feel something around the blade. There was something there that set it apart from a normal weapon, even one like Laevatein. However, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what it was.

"Lets...leave it for now," I said, shutting the box, "I'll put it in the armoury in case she changes her mind."

"I don't think thats likely," said Lisa.

"I don't care," I said, "This is meant for Rachel and we'll keep it for her."

I headed for the door and paused before heading through.

"Oh, and before I forget, I made an arrangement with one of the local Devils. I know that you guys don't really think that these are necessary, so I decided that showing you just what we're up against would help. Be ready to move out and someone let Rachel know."

"Alright," said Brian.

"Pft, how bad could it be?" asked Alec.

I smirked.

"Oh, you'll see soon enough," I said.

I let the door shut behind me and looked down at the box in my hand with a frown. Why did the sword seem so familiar? It wasn't anything from DXD and definitely wasn't from Worm, so where did it come from?

"Eh, I guess I'll find out eventually," I muttered as I headed for the armoury, "I wonder what'll happen next?"

 **Good question, but it'll have to wait. Sorry this is a bit shorter, but I feel like this is a good place to end.**

 **I hope I did a good job with the interaction with the Wards. We'll see the aftermath of that soon enough, don't worry. It certainly won't help Piggots paranoia to know that he keeps revealing new tricks.**

 **I really don't think I need to spell out who the couple running the place are, do I? Speaking of, I'd like some ideas for names for the bar and restaurant. They won't play a big role, but as the hangouts for the team and friends in the future, I will need one.**

 **Yes, there is a reason why Aisha was watching Fantasia. I wanted to give her something that wasn't just a sassy teenager. That and I have plans for her connection to it. No, shes not Chernobog's daughter or anything like that, so don't ask.**

 **Hmm, I wonder who this mysterious R could be? Figure it out and...I don't know, I'll call you out in the next chapter?**

 **The Undersiders weapons come from Fate, God of War and Nanoha. Guess which is which. I really like Signums look, so I decided to steal it for Lisa. She'll need a new name as well since I don't think that Tattletale fits a flaming sword user. I also didn't really want to call Grue's axe Leviathan because we've already got two and a third would confuse things.**

 **And here we go, the first big clue as to exactly what Rachel is and who shes related to. Its not a character from DXD or Worm, but he is stupidly popular for...reasons. I suspect I'd figure it out if I watched the Anime, but since most of the characters make me want to punch them in the face, that won't be happening.**

 **Final point, should I sent Baskerville to take part in the Madison attack or not? I've been going back and forth with it and I have ideas for both, but I'm not to sure if I should actually do it or not.**

 **Anyway, time to sign out. Next time, the Stray hunt and possibly the start of the first proper arc after the intro. Until then, don't forget to leave a review!**


	7. Chapter 7

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **And we're back. Before we begin, this probably goes without saying, but by the power vested in me as the Author of this fic, I'm modifying Rachels past slightly. Enjoy!**

Chapter 7

The next week went by quickly. Between training with Rossweisse and Thor (who had finally introduced himself and his wife properly, giving everyone but Lisa and Aisha a heart attack in the process), school and occasionally stumbling on crimes on my wanderings, often accompanied by either Aisha or Rachel. Honestly, I was a little worried about the latter. Ever since she'd received that sword, she'd been even worse than normal. She'd often disappear for hours at a time and returned late at night, covered in blood and bruises. I don't know what she was doing, but she wasn't targeting Hookwolf's events and whatever it was was dangerous. I wanted to find a way to help her, but I didn't think she'd talk to me if I asked.

"Urrg, this is gonna give me a headache," I grumbled as I rubbed my temples.

Currently, I was stood on the roof of a building in the downtown area of the city, watching the general populous go about their day without really seeing and being glad that I'd managed to create a runic array for my jacket that kept me toasty, despite the mid January chill. By which I mean it was fucking cold.

"What am I supposed to do Zwei?" I asked.

"I find that ice cream helps."

"GAH!"

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the unexpected voice. Sitting on the edge of the roof, where I'm certain no one had been sitting a moment ago, was a young girl who looked about ten, with long, blonde hair, blue eyes and a slightly dotty air about her. She was wearing a green hoodie, blue jeans and was barefoot, despite the cold, and, for some reason, had a large tub of ice cream in her hands. In January.

"Who are you?" I asked, "And...where did you come from?"

"Oh, I'm Elle," said the girl, "As for where, well, the Author put me here because he thought it'd be funny."

She looked up and waved at...something in a way that gave me a headache. Not that I didn't already have one coming considering that the girl was probably Labyrinth and was acting like Luna.

"Where do you think Dis got the idea from?" asked Elle.

I stared at her for a moment, before sighing.

"Right, breaking the Fourth Wall aside, what do you want?" I asked.  
Elle tilted her head on one side.

"Whats the Fourth Wall?" she asked innocently.

Aaaand once again I found myself staring at her, unable to form a response. Seriously, what the hell?! I know Labyrinths pretty fucked up, but I was expecting her to be withdrawn and nervus, not, well Luna at her most Seer Savantisness! And yes, I know thats not a word, but you try being coherent around Elle!

Before I could properly think of a way to respond, a loud explosion shook the roof. I spun around and immediately spotted a large pillar of smoke rising from the are of the city that was Merchant territory.

"You should go," said Elle, "Your friends need help."

I blinked and turned to face the girl, only to find that she'd vanished.

"Damn brat," I muttered as I started running towards the smoke, "Wouldn't surprise me if her surname really was Lovegood…"

I shoved that thought down in favour of summoning Zwei from my shadow and tightening my fighters gloves. Something told me that this was going to be messy.

* * *

I was completely right. I arrived at the source of the explosion to find that, rather than a large fight with Capes and gang members, Vista and Gallant were apparently being harassed by…I froze, my eyes widening as I recognized the silver hair and weaponry the Wards attacker was using. A light sword and a Light Gun.

 **FREED SELLZEN!**

I growled and jumped off the building, sprinting towards the fight as fast as I could, my mind spinning. Why was Freed here? And more importantly, why the fuck was he picking a fight with a couple of Wards?! He was a maniac who would have no problem with slaughtering any random person who got in his way, but I didn't think he'd attack someone completely at random! Then again, butterflys and all that and its not impossible that he'd 'rationalize' it away with the excuse that Parahumans powers came from Devils or something. There was a time, shortly after they first appeared, that thats exactly what some people thought. Hell, there were STILL people who thought that powers came from the Devil and were a herald of the End Times. Ironically enough, that wasn't entirely inaccurate.

I shook my head and refocused on the matter at hand. Freed was vicious, powerful and extremely skilled, so I'd be at a disadvantage. On the other hand, I would probably be a better choice than any of the Heroes because Freed played for keeps and in a fight like this, so did I.

"HAA, TIME TO DIE KIDDIES!" screamed Freed as he bounded over a car and aimed his sword at Vista's back.

"Not likely asshole!" I snarled as I vaulted over a car and kicked him in the face.

"OUCHIE!"

CLANG!

"What the...Slash Dog?" said Gallant, looking rather surprised.

"Get out of here," I said as Zwei expanded to full size, "This isn't an opponent you can fight."

"But…" started Vista, before Gallant grabbed her and dragged her away.

Good choice. With them there, Freed could go after them when I kicked his arse.

"Owww, that hurt asshole!" snarled Freed, "Who are you?!"

I narrowed my eyes.

"I should be asking you that, Judas Priest," I said, "Any particular reason your attacking Humans? I thought your type was more into attacking Devils?"

"Oh, I would normally," said Freed, "But those brats had the nerve to stop my Holy work! I'd just cornered one of the scumbags and that wannabe knight had the nerve to hit me from behind! Well, I won't take it! Any who help Devil Scum and those that call upon them must be cleansed!"

I stared at him.

"Bullshit," I said, "You just love killing."

Freed paused and looked thoughtful for a moment, before shrugging.

"True, but I don't kill those who follow the Lord," he said, "Now, since you took my pray, YOU CAN REPLACE THEM!"

"PANZERSCHILD!"

The triangular barrier popped into existence as Freed tried to stab me, before Zwei pounced, forcing the crazed Priest to jump back or get diced. I clasped my hands together as my barrier vanished, summoning another Magic circle, before flinging my hands out and sending a wave of needle-like beams of blue energy shooting at Freed. The bastard proved that he'd more than earned his stripes by dodging them, despite the fact he was having to contend with Zwei at the same time. I growled and summoned more circles, only stopping when the focus required got to much, and proceeded to bombard the area in front of me with as much firepower as I could manage.

After a full twenty seconds, I let up my attack and waited for the resulting dust cloud to clear...only to suddenly feel a flash of pain across my bond with Zwei and for Freed to erupt out of the cloud, sword already in motion.

"NICE TRY BRAT!" he screamed, his face twisted in an insane grin.

I cursed in my head as I pulled on my power to summon some blades, even though I knew I wouldn't be quick enough. That was the biggest problem with wide area attacks, they always threw up a smokescreen. I really needed to learn how to fly so this would be less of a problem!

I crossed my arms to try and block the attack enough that he wouldn't just kill me, already knowing I wouldn't get out of this without getting hurt. I didn't even have enough time to create a Barrier…

 **Selbstverteidigung.**

Before I could react, a round barrier appeared in front of me, just in time to deflect Freeds attack.

"What the fuck?!" spluttered the mad Exorcist, before my foot slammed into his stomach, sending him flying.

Now I was no longer at risk of getting stabbed, I stuck my hand into my pocket where the voice had come from and pulled out the red crystal pendant.

"Was that you?" I asked, feeling a little foolish.

 **Jawohl.**

I blinked, then sighed.

"Your a Device, aren't you?"

The crystal just twinkled.

"Alright then, I guess I'll bite," I said, slipping the pendent over my shoulder, "Lets go, Set Up!"

 **Stahlfauste, einrichten!**

The pendent shone brightly and I felt my magic react, pulling Mana from the air to wrap around me. I felt my clothing change, becoming heavier and my jacket turning into a long coat with armour plates on the shoulders and hips as the gauntlets appeared on my hands. I felt a connection open between me and them, linking my mind and magic with the artificial intelligence housed within the Armed Device.

"I don't suppose your settings can be changed to English?" I asked as the light faded.

 **Acknowledged, preference set.**

"Thanks."

I refocused on Freed as he slowly got to his feet, glaring at me as Zwei moved back to my side, a deep gash in his side slowly sealing itself.

"You OK boy?" I asked.

Zwei nodded, not taking his eyes of Freed.

"Good, now lets see what these can do."

"Ohhh, very impressive," said Freed, "I don't know what that was, but it won't help you! I'm gonna finish with you, then hunt down those two brats who got in my way!"

I scowled and slipped into a fighting stance.

"Big mistake," I growled, "Now I'm not holding back at all. No one threatens my friends!"

I threw out my hands.

 **PHOTON LANCER!**

Multiple spheres of what looked like black and red lightning formed around me. Freed paused at the sight of them and paled slightly.

"Well shit," he said.

 **SHOOT!**

BOOM!

"GAHHHH!"

Freed was sent flying as my shooting spell slammed into him. I decided to think about possible reasons as to why I was apparently defaulting to Fates Shooting spell when my default Barrier spell was Panzerschild later, instead I sent Zwei after him again as I followed.

 **PROMOTION: KNIGHT!**

I gasped as I felt my Mana flow through me, increasing my speed, agility and perception. Somehow, I knew that the spell was an inbuilt one that essentially mimicked the Promotion power of a Pawn, albeit without quite as much power behind it. Without the near limitless power of an Evil Piece, it could only affect me to the level of my Mana reserves, but it was still an impressive boost. A boost I put to excellent use by zipping up to Freed and slugging him in the face. It was rather cathartic. I grinned at the look of utter shock on Freeds face as he slowly (to me) arched back, before I blurred and hit him repeatedly, pummeling as hard as I could as Zwei joined the fray and started jumping up and down on the bastards stomach.

Of course, I was so caught up in my power new power boost and the great feeling of kicking Freeds ass that I completely forgot that I was dealing with someone who was able to take on a Balance Breaker and Durandal at the same time. True, he had the Fused Excalibur, but that was still impressive. He showed that impressive skill by taking advantage of a tiny opening I left between strikes and shooting me in the gut. I stumbled back, clutching my stomach as I gasped for breath. My Knight Clothing had prevented the bullet from actually hurting me, but it was still enough to wind me. Freed took advantage of the further opened by lashing out with his sword and stabbing Zwei through the head.

I screamed in pain as the feedback slammed into my head like a brick and collapsed, my Device deactivating as Zwei's body dissolved. I'd be able to re-summon him of course, but that. Fucking. Hurt!

"You...damn...brat!" snarled Freed as he slowly pushed himself to his feet, "No one does that to Freed Sellzen!"

He was a mess, his nose clearly broken, his hair mussed and dirty from being slammed into the ground and his cassock covered in mud, dirt and blood.

"Heh, thats quite a claim considering I just beat you up," I gasped.

Freed scowled.

"True, but theres no way you're gonna live now!"

He pointed his gun at my head. I growled as I tried to force myself to move, summon another attack, anything. However, the pain in my head and stomach meant I couldn't focus. Holy crap, I was gonna die! Killed by the maniac who, while no pushover, still managed to go out like a chump! This...this sucked!

I could only watch as Freed pulled the trigger...only to get sent flying as a fist slammed into his face once again. He flew back, only to twist nauseatingly and slam into the ground, hard. I blinked and looked up to see that Gallant and Vista had come back and were now stood over me at the ready.

"I thought I told you two to go?" I said as I finally managed to regain my breath.

"If we had, you'd be dead," said Vista.

"Point taken," I said, "Still, this guys a lot more dangerous than most of the folks you'll have fought."

"That might be true, but we can't leave a fellow Hero to die," said Gallant.

"Hero huh?" I muttered, "Eh, whatever, I'll take the help."

"YOU FUCKING BRATS!" snarled Freed, getting to his feet again.

Good god, what did it take to keep this bastard down?!

"You think this'll be enough to stop me!? Please, you don't scare me!"

"Then how about us?"

A magic circle appeared and flashed, revealing Rachel, Aisha and Lisa in her new costume, all of whom looked pissed.

"Hmm, I think this might end badly," I muttered as I spotted Vista and Gallant stiffen out of the corner of my eye.

"Tch, more weaklings?" sneered Freed.

Then, he hopped back as Aisha lashed out with Night Reflection, turning the shadows into deadly blades and spears to attack.

"On second thoughts, this might be to much," said Freed, "Fine, you've won this one!"

He pulled something out of his coat and threw it down, creating a massive flash of light that blinded everyone. By the time we could see again, Freed was gone.

"Well, that was fun," I grumbled as I slowly got to my feet, "Although I would like to know what you guys are doing here?"

"I sensed your Sacred Gear deactivating and got worried," said Aisha, "What happened?"

"That bastard managed to get Zwei," I growled, "I can re-summon him, but it fucking hurt and I don't think I'll be able to do it until tomorrow."

"Who was that guy?" asked Lisa.

"Freed Sellzen, a Stray Exorcist as far as I can tell," I said, "One thing's for sure, hes a maniac and I highly doubt we've seen the last of him. I need more training."

"Um, excuse me?"

I sighed and turned to the two Wards, who were staring at Rachel with no small amount of confusion.

"Yes?" I asked.

"What is she doing here?" asked Vista, pointing at Rachel, "You do know shes a Villain?"

"Was a Villain," said Rachel.

"I've recently been approached by someone with a request to from a team," I said, "Since Rachel is a friend, I asked her to join."

"Shes a murderer," said Gallant.

Lisa scoffed

"Thats bullshit," she said, "The people she 'murdered' died because of her Trigger Event and the only reason she was even landed with those charges is that the PRT were to lazy to actually figure out how her powers worked. You all assume she controls dogs, but she just empowers them."

"I probably ought to ask the old geezer if he knows any good lawyers who could deal with that issue," I said, "It'll become a pain if we don't…"

I shook my head.

"Anyway, thanks for the help guys. I'm sure I'll be returning the favour in the future."

I grinned at the two Wards as I joined my teammates on the Circle. I waved as the Circle activated and we vanished in a flash of light.

* * *

We reappeared in the living room of our base and I immediately dropped into the sofa with a groan of relief.

"Urg, my head feels like its been squeezed in a vice," I groaned.

"Good, maybe that'll teach you to be more careful," said Aisha as she stalked off in the direction of her room

I stared after her, before a wrap around the back of my head made me jump.

"Ow!"

"Be more careful," said Rachel as she padded away.

I stared after both girls, rubbing the back of my head in confusion.

"What was all that about?" I muttered.

Lisa snorted, drawing my attention back to her. She shook her head, although her smirk told me that she knew exactly why those two were acting so strangely. I glared at her for a moment, before I sighed and got to my feet.

"Well, I'm going to go…"

I was cut off by my phone going off. I pulled it out and raised an eyebrow when I saw it was Rias.

"Yo Rias, need something?" I asked as I answered the phone.

"We've received an order," said Rias, "If you still want your team to tag along on a Stray Hunt, meet us at that abandoned mansion on Captains Hill in 15 minutes."

"Got it," I said and hung up.

"What was that?" asked Lisa.

"Its time to go," I said, "Get Alec and Brian and have them suit up. Leaving in 15 minutes."

Lisa looked like she was about to ask something, but just nodded and headed for the training room. As she did, I jogged down the halls and banged on Rachel and Aisha's doors.

"Sorry to interrupt ladies, but we've got orders," I said as they opened their doors.

"Stray?" asked Aisha.

"Stray."

She nodded and ducked back into her room for a moment, returning in her shadow costume with her dagger strapped to her belt and heading to the meeting room to get ready to go. I glanced at Rachel and gestured down the hall.

"Shall we?"

Rachel just nodded and followed me to the Meeting room.

"So, what is it that we're doing?" asked Alec once we were all gathered.

"One of the jobs Odin will have for us is dealing with Stray Devils," I said, "They are Devils who betray their masters and run off to cause havoc and destruction on their own. They tend to be...unpleasant. I asked Rias if we could tag along on her next hunt so you lot could get some idea of what we'll be up against."

I looked around at the Undersiders.

"Fair warning, this is NOT the game of cops and robbers Capes play. Strays don't care if your Human, Cape, Devil, Angel or anything in between, if they beat you, they WILL kill you and likely eat you. We won't be getting involved directly in this fight, but for the love of Odin, keep your guard up, understand?"

"Got it boss," said Alec while the others nodded.

I returned the nod and glanced down at my Device.

"Set Up."

 **Stahlfauste, einrichten!**

There was a flash of light and my Barrier Jacket appeared, along with my Device.

"Huh...I didn't take you for a Magical Girl," said Alec.

"Watch it you," I growled as I turned to the Transport Circle and activated it.

Alec high fived Aisha as everyone trooped onto the platform and I activated the transport function. One flash of blue light later and we appeared in a clearing on Captains Hill where we were met by Rias and her Peerage, along with a young woman I didn't recognize. She looked about 30, with brown hair and eyes. She was shorter than average, but as attractive as most people I'd met.

"Hey Rias," I said, "New recruit?"

"Good to see you Sam," said Rias, "And yes. This is my new Rook, Kayden."

"Um, nice to meet you?" said Kayden, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Nice to see you again Kayden," I said after a quick round of introductions, "I wasn't expecting you to join up with Rias. Let me guess, Kaiser pushed to hard?"

Kayden scowled.

"Yes, and I'd thank you for not bringing that up," she growled, "I just got away from the bastard and got a restraining order against him. Now I just want to forget about it."

"Fair enough," I said.

"I'd ask how you two know each other, but thats kinda obvious," said Rias, "Anyway, lets get started."

She started leading the way towards the house.

"Hey, why did Rias refer to her as a Rook?" asked Brian.

"Glad you asked," I said, "Rias?"

"Certainly," said the red haired Devil, "It all goes back to the Great War between Heaven, the Fallen and the Underworld. As you can probably imagine for people with lifespans that measure in millenia, Devils are slow to breed, so after the War, our population was decimated. To help supplement it, a system was implemented to Reincarnate other beings as Devils through the use of Evil Pieces."

She paused as she opened the doors of the house, releasing a foul stench of rotting meat.

"Urg, smells like something died!" gasped Alec, clapping a hand over his nose.

"Most likely because something did," I said, "I did say that Strays kill people."

"This particular one has been luring people into this house and eating them," said Akeno.

Beside me, Lisa gulped and moved a little closer to me. I glanced at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Not a word," she muttered.

I chuckled, but let her stick by me as we headed inside.

"As I was saying, the Evil Piece system is based on chess," said Rias, "Each High Ranking Devil is a King and has a Queen, two Knights, two Bishops, two Rooks and Eight Pawns. Each piece has powers and attributes tied to it that empowers the Devil with certain abilities."

"Like what?" asked Lisa.

"Oh, you'll see," said Rias with a smirk as she stopped in front of a pair of double doors, "I think we just arrived."

"Oh what is that foul faecal smell?" said a voice with a hint of madness in it, "And something smells quite delicious as well. I wonder if it tastes sweet or bitter."

From the shadows behind a pillar, a figure emerged. It was the upper body of a beautiful woman and was completely naked.

"Oh wow, I give that a 7 out of ten!" said Alec with a thumbs up.

"Aisha, hit him," I said.

SMACK!

"OW!"

I just rolled my eyes and moved my hand to where my collapsed spear was hidden under my jacket. Better safe than sorry.

"Viser you wretch, you betrayed your master and ran away to fulfil the lustful wants and desires that have consumed you," said Rias, "Your sins are worthy of a thousand hells. in the name of the great Marques of Gremory, begone, or meet your death!"

"Oh give it a rest you little slut," said Viser, "You've always had it in for me. You're just jealous cus your breasts will never be as luscious as these!"

She grabbed her breasts and started rubbing them, giggling insanely.

"This is your final warning, go back to your master now," said Rias, only to be ignored.

"Wow, this is a stray devil?" asked Alec, "She looks like a softcore late night cable star!"

"let me show you what I'm made of then!" said Viser as a huge hand tipped with red talons emerged from the darkness.

"Gah!"

"Heh, when I said these things are monsters, I wasn't joking," I said with a strained smile.

Indeed I wasn't. The monster before us could probably give Noelle a run for her money in sheer disgustingness. She had the upper body of a beautiful woman, but from the waist down she was a hideous monster. It was gigantic and resembled the lower half of a centaur. but with a pair of humanoid talons tipped with glowing red claws and what looked like teeth in her stomach cavity. And there are no words that could have conveyed just how badly it smelt. a combination of blood, rotting flesh and excrement.

"Shes got a really nice rack though, what a waist," said Alec.

I would have facepalmed, but was more worried about the magic circles that had appeared around the monsters nipples. Her laughter became more psychopathic as the circles got bigger. A second later, beams of yellow energy shot from her breasts. I threw out my hands and summoned a large barrier between us and the Stray, although a few of the beams hit the walls and promptly ate through the structure.

"Ah...maybe not," said Alec.

There was another loud smack.

"Please be careful," said Rias, "Isaiah!"

Said boy grabbed the hilt of the sword at his hip and vanished. Well, to anyone who didn't have years of training and near perfect vision he did at least. I could still follow him with ease.

"Holy shit, hes faster than Assault!" gasped Lisa.

"In this game Kibas my Knight," said Rias, "His attribute is speed and his ultimate attack is his sword."

The Knight appeared below the Stray and sliced off her huge taloned arms. The Stray screamed in agony as Koneko stepped forwards. Visers face began to change, becoming more demonic with parana like teeth and pointed ears as her stomach opened to reveal a massive mouth.

"Look out!" yelled Brian as the Stray bore down on the small girl, the huge jaws slamming shut on her.

I put a hand out to stop my teammates from running in to help.

"That won't be necessary," I said.

"Indeed," said Rias, smirking.

Viser shook as she struggled to keep her mouth shut, only for it to be forced open, revealing Koneko standing there looking none the worse for wear.

"In the game shes my Rook," explained Rias, "Her attribute is simple. She has unparalleled strength. That won't even put a dent in her."

My teammates were gaping at the small girl as she stood in the monster's jaws, keeping them open with seemingly no trouble. I'm not sure why though considering Brutes weren't exactly uncommon. Still, it was still odd to see such a small girl with that much strength and her uniform was a little tattered.

"See you on the flip side," said Koneko, swinging her fist and shattering Visers teeth, sending her flying into the pillars.

"Note to self, do not piss her off," said Alec.

"Good god, shes stronger than Glory Girl," whimpered Lisa.

"Now do you see why I wanted you to come and get some idea of what we're up against?" I asked.

Four weak nods were my response.

"Akano," said Rias.

"Oh, this'll be good," I said as the girl began to move forwards, a creepy smile on her lips.

"Oh is it my turn?" she asked, "How exciting, I so love this game. Fufufu!"

I glanced around the room, making sure that there wasn't anything else sneaking up on us, when I noticed one of Visers severed arms twitch, before launching itself at Rias.

"Photon Lancer," I said as I fired a ball of energy at the arm, blowing it to bits.

Rias blinked and glanced at the arm.

"Huh, nice reflexes," she said.

I shot her a flat look.

"Yes yes, your very good," she said, "Akano, finish her off please."

The black haired beauty giggled demurely.

"I've got news for you," she said, "You're not the only one who likes to play rough around here. so whats say you and I have some fun?"

She raised her hands and yellow lightning began to generate between them.

"Akano is my Queen," said Rias, "Her attributes are a perfect combo of all the other pieces. shes simply unbeatable."

Riser glared up at the Queen from her place on the floor.

"Tough girl, still not ready to give up?" asked Akano, "Goody, I get to play some more!"

She raised her hands and unleashed a massive bolt of yellow lightning that shocked the Stray.

"Her weapon is a dark magical power," said Rias by explanation, "And thats not all…"

"All this violence, its making me so hot," said Akano, a light blush on her face as she ran her tongue over her lips.

"...shes really into S&M," finished Rias as Akano continued to shock the Stray, giggling madly.

"Is this as good for you as it is for me?" asked Akano over the sounds of lightning and screaming.

"You mean she gets off on this?" asked Alec, looking like he'd rather not be thinking about it.

Judging by Lisas expression, her power was feeding her information about the Priestess of Thunders…'interests', but what really worried me was that Aisha looked rather interested. I really hope it was the lightning magic and not the BDSM thing.

I just shuddered, not even wanting to get into that.

"Akano, I think shes had enough," said Rias, prompting her Queen to let up and allow the Stray to fall to the floor, steaming lightly.

"Aw, over already?" asked Akano, "And I was just starting to enjoy myself."

I shivered again,

Rias walked over to the groaning form of the Stray.

"Any last words before we end this?" asked the King.

"Go to hell," snarled Viser as an answer.

"Alright, lets get this over with," said Rias, spreading her arms as a red magic circle appeared in front of her, "Game over."

With a flash of red, Viser was completely annihilated, leaving nothing but a scorched stretch of floor.

"We're done here."

Rias turned to us and smiled.

"Lets go home."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

"That...that was brutal," said Brain.

We were all back at the base, with the former Undersiders sitting around the table looking rather shaken.

"And you want us to fight those things?" asked Alec.

"Not right now, no," I said, "Trust me, you're a ways from taking on Strays. However, I didn't take you there to show you how outmatched you are, but rather to give you the incentive to train your arse of and become as strong as you can be. As Humans, we can never truly match the other Races in a physical fight, but we don't have to."

I waved a hand at the weapons they all had in front of them.

"Those are Legendary weapons, forged to give Heroes the ability to defeat monsters, Aisha and I possess literal gifts from the God of the Bible and we have an entire library of magic and access to the resources of Asgard. Humans CAN match the Supernatural, it just takes time and effort. If you put that effort in, well, then you'll be able to fight on the level of Gods."

I placed my hands on the table and leaned forwards.

"Of course, I won't force you," I said, "If you want, you can leave. Odin will give you what you need and you can go back to your life, forgetting all about this world of Monsters and Gods. Think about it and decide. For now, I'm going to bed."

I left the meeting room, leaving the former Undersiders to their thoughts.

 **And there we go, done. That was...interesting to write to say the least. Fun though.**

 **I...have no idea why Elles like that. However, she reminds me so much of Luna I couldn't resist. This is supposed to be making the world of Worm more pleasant, so why not take a scared little girl and give her the ability to see the world like nobody else can?**

 **Hey, its Freed! I know hes not really the type to kill people at random, but...no, he totally is. If he thought they were in any way connected to Devils, he'd happily slaughter anyone he could get his blade on.**

 **Yes, he does basically have a Device. No, I will not be adding Nanoha, although other Devices are a distinct possibility. Currently, I'm toying with the idea of giving someone the Tome of the Nights Sky, complete with Knights and Reinforce. My current candidate is Dinah. I probably won't though.**

 **Sams Promotion spell is basically just a temporary buff that grants him the attribute of an Evil Piece for a short time.**

 **Zwei is NOT dead and will be back in no time.**

 **I originally planned to make Kayden a Bishop, but then I thought I might as well turn her into what amounts to an Alexandria package. Now I have an idea for a scene where Kaiser has one of his goons take a shot at Purity, only for it to bounce of her.**

 **Anyway, thats done. Next time, Taylor joins and possibly more ecchi stuff. Until then, don't forget to leave a review!**


	8. Chapter 8

Outsider Chronicles: Slash Dog

Getting reborn as the son of a notorious supervillain in an equally notarius world should have been the start of a fight to remain on the side of light. Fortunately for me, this version of the world is a lot more Shonen than I was expecting.

 **And we're back. Enjoy!**

Chapter 8

The day after the Stray hunt started...oddly. To start with, I woke up before my alarm. It took me a few sleepy moments to figure out why before I noticed that my pillow was oddly warm and smelt really nice. Without thinking, I buried my nose deeper the the soft warmth and squeezed tighter.

"Mmmg."

I froze, my mind snapping awake. That...wasn't what I was expecting.

" _Lets see, if I know my Ecchi Anime, and I do, I think I know what I'm going to see when I open my eyes,"_ I thought.

For a moment, I debated whether or not I should try and dismiss this as a dream and go back to sleep, before I realized that that would be entirely pointless. So instead, I opened my eyes. Sure enough, I found myself staring at a pair of perfectly formed and naked breasts the colour of chocolate. Considering that there were only two people I knew with that colour skin and I didn't think Azazel had figured out his genderbending ray yet, that left one logical conclusion.

I tried to pull back, but a pair of toned arms wrapped around my head and pulled me back.

"Nooo, to comfey," moaned the girl.

"Aisha, what are you doing in my bed?" I asked, trying desperately to ignore my morning wood that was making itself known.

"Mmm, does it matter?" asked the Night Reflection user, "This guy doesn't seem to mind."

She rubbed her thigh against my crotch, sending a shiver shooting down my spine.

"Yes it matters because, no matter how awesome this is, breaking and entering is a crime," I said, "Now what are you doing here?"

Aisha shifted and before I could react, I was on my back with the slightly younger girl straddling me, a wide grin on her face. I gulped and desperately tried to keep my gaze on her face. It wasn't working.

"Well, I figured we might as well try and improve our teamwork," she said, "Ever heard of Skinship?"

My eye twitched. Somehow, I should have known that was coming considering the fact this world ran on Ecchi logic. Hell, I'm surprised more people haven't been stripped by this point!

"You do know thats not really a thing, right?" I asked.

"Oh please, how can baring it all not help with teamwork?" asked Aisha.

"When one of said team is an overprotective brother with a massive axe," I growled.

"Aww, don't worry about Brian," said Aisha, "I'll deal with him. For now, lets just have some fun~."

BANG!

Both our heads snapped around to the door where Rossweisse was stood in a frilly pink apron because of reasons I guess. There was a moment of complete silence as Aisha sat up, letting my duvet fall off her and Rossweisse looked between the two of us. Then, her face practically caught fire.

"U-um, take your time!" she squeaked and slammed the door.

"Well...that was interesting," said Aisha, "Now, where were...yipes!"

I took the opportunity to shove her off me and hop out of bed as she went down in a tangle of sheets.

"Hey, what was that for?" demanded Aisha as she sat back up, crossing her arms under her bust and doing nothing to cover up.

"As much as I really, REALLY don't want to, I've got school today," I said.

"So what, schools more important than me?" asked Aisha with a pout, "What, don't you like me?"

I sighted and poked her in the forehead.

"I like you just fine idiot," I said, "But that doesn't mean I'm just gonna jump into bed with you. I've got to much respect for you for that."

Aisha looked surprised as her cheeks darkened slightly.

"I-idiot," she muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing, come on, I'm hungry!" she said with a smile.

She jumped out of bed and grabbed her panties from where she'd left them. I quickly turned around as she started getting dressed, but not before the utterly shameless sight of what was hidden between her legs had burnt itself into my mind.

"Shes going to be the death of me," I muttered weakly.

* * *

Taylor stared up at the school building before her and swallowed. She'd finally been cleared to return to school and, as promised, Mr Parsons had organised her transfer to Arcadia. Now she stood before the school, feeling extremely uncomfortable in a uniform that made her unattractive form that much more obvious, surrounded by students streaming into the building. She couldn't do this, it was…

A paw patting her cheek made her thoughts stop and she looked up at the little lion riding on her head.

"Hey, calm down Tay," said Regulus, "I told you, you'll do fine. No ones gonna hurt you here, not with me here."

Taylor took a deep breath and smiled weakly. That was another problem. Because she was an outed Cape, she'd only attract more attention, not helped in the slightest by Regulus' presence. Of course, she was happy to have the lion at her side and she knew that there was no way she'd be able to get through this without him, but it meant that no one would dismiss her. Another pat on her cheek drew her out of her thoughts.

"Don't worry so much," said Regulus, "Remember, you are a lion, not a mouse. Who cares what other people think? Just step forwards and show them that your not afraid. Prove those bitches wrong by rising above them."

Taylor smiled again, this time a little stronger.

"Thanks Regulus," she said, plucking the little lion of her head and hugging him.

"Don't mention it," said the lion, his voice slightly muffled.

Taylor took a deep breath and stepped forwards, ready to start the first day of her new life...only to freeze as she felt...something appear near her. She couldn't explain the feeling, but she knew that Regulus felt it too through their bond. She turned in the direction the feeling was coming from and spotted the source.

A boy and a girl were approaching the school, the boy in uniform with a leather jacket over the top and the the girl in casual clothes. They were an odd pair, nearly opersits, with the boy having pale skin, sleek blonde hair and blue eyes, while the girl had dark skin, choppy cut black hair with a purple streak and dark eyes. The girl was grinning widely, while the boy looked annoyed and slightly embarrassed by something.

"...I just want to know why you thought it was a good idea to tease Rossweisse like that!" demanded the boy as they entered Taylors hearing range.

Taylor blinked as Regulus facepawed. That...was a tad unexpected.

"Oh come on, you have to admit that the look on her face was amazing!" said the girl, "Even better than when she walked in on us!"

"I think anyone would react like that if they walked in on a family member in bed with an unknown, naked girl," growled the boy.

Taylor eeped and went red.

"Aww come on, you liked it," said the girl innocently, although the grin on her face was anything but innocent.

"Thats not the point!" growled the boy.

The girl just cackled.

"Anyway, I gotta go," she said, "I got school to ditch! See ya later Sam and don't forget to introduce yourself to the new girl!"

She hopped up, kissed the boy on the cheek and vanished into the shadows. Literally. Taylors jaw dropped at the blatant use of powers in public. True, she couldn't really talk, but she was an outed Cape! She'd never heard of a Cape able to do anything like that, other than Shadow Stalker, and the girl defiantally wasn't Sophia.

The boy looked shocked at the girls antics and went bright red.

"I swear, that girls going to be the death of me," he grumbled as he turned around.

As he did, Taylor caught a glimpse of the black dog patch on the back of his jacket and paled. She might have been out of it for a while, but she'd spent a lot of time on PHO since she Triggered and thus, immediately recognized the jacket as the one Slash Dog wore. Opinion on the Master/Shaker was...divided to say the least. There were people who thought he was just another villain like his Father, some who thought he should be locked up before he went on a rampage and, on the other side of the fence, there were those who defended him, usually by pointing out that the idea of bad blood was bullshit and how he'd done nothing wrong. The fact that a lot of people who were apparently affiliated with the Empire got slammed with Tin-Mothers legendary Banhammer for obscene comments directed at Slash Dog made it clear that he wasn't affiliated with the Empire.

Even so, the fact that he'd been able to fight Glory Girl to a standstill was impressive, even if she had had to hold back to keep from damaging the building, was more than a little scary. Sure, she had power of her own and she had a great deal of faith in Regulus, but she'd had her powers for all of a week, so she was still very much in the mindset of avoiding Capes she wasn't absolutely sure were Heroes.

"Um, are you alright?"

The sudden voice made Taylor jump and let out a rather undignified squeak.

"Oh, hey Amy," said Regulus, not bothered in the slightest by his Masters sudden movement.

Taylor whipped around the face the newcomer, a girl who looked a little older, although she was shorter than Taylor (not that much of a surprise considering) and a cute splash of freckles across her nose. Said girl looked rather surprised, although whether it was because of the talking cat on her head or the fact she had a cat on her head in the first place was up for debate. She also looked familiar for some reason.

"Um, do I know you?" asked Taylor.

On her head, Regulus sighed and tapped her on the nose.

"Shes Amy Dallon stupid," he whispered, "Now don't fangirl and introduce yourself."

Now why did that name sound so famil….OH!

A solid rap on the back of her head from Regulus' tail stopped her first instinct to fangirl over the world famous healer.

"Um, hi," said Taylor, "I'm, um, new?"

Panacea snorted.

"Yeah, I can see that," she said, "Your the girl with the lion, Tina, right?"

"Taylor," corrected Taylor.

"Right, Taylor," said Panacea, "I'm Amy."

She turned her gaze to the lion on her head.

"And your Regulus."

"The one and only!" said the lion with a toothy grin.

Pan...Amy (and wasn't that weird) chuckled and smiled at Taylor.

"Come on, I'll show you to the office," she said.

Taylor nodded a little weakly and followed the older girl into the school.

* * *

There were a couple of things responsible for my headache today. The first and most obvious was the thing with Aisha and her teasing of Rossweisse over breakfast that had resulted in the Valkyrie blushing so hard I'm surprised steam didn't come out of her ears, although Grandma didn't seem that bothered by Aisha's presence. The only thing she'd said was to be sure to use protection. I...didn't know how to take that. The other was the rather odd feeling I'd had since I reached the school and it wasn't until I turned around to enter the building, still absently rubbing my cheek, that I saw the source.

It was a girl who looked extremely odd with what looked like a lion cub on her head. She was tall and slim, with an athletic form and drool worthy legs that looked amazing in her school stockings. She had an expressive face, with a wide mouth and large eyes that made her appear oddly innocent, despite the slight fear and wariness I could see in her stance and expression. Her hair was thick, dark and curly and clearly well taken care of. It was also what tipped me off to her identity.

"Well, there goes canon," I said, "And it also confirms that Taylor desperately needs a confidence boost."

I watched as Amy Dallon approached the other Sacred Gear user and talk with her, tilting my head on one side.

"Hmm, I wonder if Taylor swings that way in this world?" I mused.

For whatever reason, I'd always rather liked Amy/Taylor pairings in my last world. If nothing else, they'd be excellent friends and their (canon) powers would compliment each other nicely. Now though, I was more interested in figuring out which Sacred Gear gave Taylor a lion cub cus the only one I could think of that could work was Regulus Nemea and he was only out because he manifested to kill his former users murderers and then was Reincarnated by Sariorg. I somehow doubted that was the case here.

"Hey, Earth to Sam, you OK?"

I blinked and turned to see Missy stood beside me, looking at me with an expression that might be worry.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine," I said, "Just...thinking about something."

"O...K," said Missy, looking around, "Hey, wheres Zwei?"

I snorted.

"I got into a fight yesterday and he got destroyed," I said, "I'll be able to re-summon him later today, but for now I'm dog free."

"I...see," said Missy, "You'll have to tell me about it later."

"I will," I said as we stared heading towards the school together.

* * *

By the time lunch rolled around, Taylors nerves were well and truly shot. Everyone seemed to be staring at her and the whispers that followed her were beyond blatant. For someone who'd spent the last 18 months being targeted by bullies and the victim of malicious whispering, it left her waiting for someone to try something and barely suppressing the urge to manifest her axe, if only so she could have the comforting weight of her weapon in her hands. As it was, she had to rely on Regulus to keep her calm and it was clear that the little lion was starting to get a little irritated by it.

"For goodness sake Taylor, calm down!" said Regulus after being jolted yet again by Taylor jumping at a sudden movement out of the corner of her eye, "No ones going to hurt you! This isn't like Winslow and even if it was, you really think their gonna make a move on an outed Cape?"

Taylor sighed.

"I know, but I can't help it!" said Taylor, "I don't like it any more than you and its even worse that I can't even open my locker without nearly collapsing!"

"Now that I don't blame you for," said Regulus, "And I can understand how you feel, believe me. However, you shouldn't let those bitches control you forever. They are gone, either rotting in prison or drowning in guilt, so buck up and show them that you can move on. The greatest revenge is to live well, so go out there and DO IT!"

"Well said little lion!"

"EEP!"

Taylor nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden and unexpected voice and spun around to find herself looking at a grinning Victoria Dallon. Naturally, when confronted by the famous and photogenic hero, Taylor brain shut down.

"Your Taylor, right?" said the blonde, "Amy told me about you. You don't know anyone here yet, right?"

Taylor slowly shook her head, before she found her wrist grabbed in a steel hard grip.

"Lets change that," said Victoria.

"Wha...EEP!"

Taylor could only yelp as she was dragged off by Hurricane Victoria.

* * *

Half an hour later, Taylor was very confused. She was in a position she never once thought she'd be in, at the popular girl table with the attractive and popular girls. There was Glory Girl (or Vicky as she insisted on being called) and her sister of course, but along with them was Katie, Angela and Alicia, three sporty girls on the soccer team, Annabeth, who was also sporty but still managed to come across as a geek by the way she had her nose in a book on architecture, and Sadie, who was incredibly sarcastic. THey were all alternating between cooing over Regulus (who was greatly enjoying the attention) and asking Taylor questions. Surprisingly, few of them had anything to do with Capes and more to do with her. It was...nice.

"Hey, look who just arrived," said Katie, indicating to the doors.

Everyone turned to see Slash Dog enter the room alongside two beautiful girls, one with crimson hair, the other with long, black hair. Vicky growled at the sight of the Dog Master.

"Still not over the beating he gave you?" asked Angela with a smirk.

"I don't trust him," said Vicky, stabbing at her food irritably.

"I don't know why not," said Alicia, "He hasn't done anything wrong and most of the people who talk to him find him perfectly reasonable. Hell, Rias and Sona both like him and you know that there good at reading people."

Victoria descended into annoyed grumbling in the face of logic as the rest of the girls started laughing. Despite herself, Taylor found herself smiling. This was...nice.

* * *

Dragon spun her code into a frown as she examined her code. She'd found herself doing this more and more often lately, trying to figure out just why she felt so...different lately. Ever since the Simurghs attack on Madison, she'd become aware that something had changed in her nature. Hell, after some examination, she'd realized that it had been going on for far longer than that. Somehow, someway, her restrictions were being loosened. They were still there, but the requirement to obey lawful authority was basically gone, her thought restrictions were less limited and she was no longer at risk of the Iron Maiden program...wait, WHAT?!

She stared at the last line of code, aghast at the idea that she'd had what was essentially a kill switch embedded in her code for so long, a kill switch that was likely in the hands of Saint and his gang if his past actions were anything to go by. Had she been able to, she would have collapsed and she certainly felt more than a little faint. The idea that the psycho could have killed her whenever he wanted was...not pleasant.

To make matters worse, she still had no idea who was changing her code. As far as she knew, no one who would be able to alter her was aware of her existence, so who…

"HI!"

"What the…!" yelped Dragon at the sudden and unexpected voice from right next to her.

At least, as far as it could be said it was from next to her when discussing a program. She spun around (metaphorically) and found herself looking at another set of code that was obviously another AI. There was a sudden...twist in the data streams and Dragon suddenly found herself stood in a swirling void of some kind in the exceptionally average avatar she'd created for when she needed to interact 'face to face' as it were. Before she could properly react to the sudden change, she found herself having to lean back as another face appeared in front of her with a mile wide grin.

The face belonged to a girl who looked about 12, with long, bluish silver hair and blue eyes. She was wearing a white dress with a short skirt and no sleeves with a long mantle around her hips, black gloves and shoes and a thigh high stocking on her right leg and a shorter one on her left. Strapped to her belt with a length of chain was a blue book with a golden cross on the front.

"Wha...who are you?" asked Dragon, feeling more than a little stumped, "And...where are we?"

"I'm Reinforce!" said the girl, "Papa made this place so I could meet you properly big sis!"

Dragon blinked.

"Big sis?" she asked weakly, still utterly out of her depth.

"Uh hu," said Reinforce, nodding rapidly, "Papa's been keeping an eye on you and now that you've finally noticed, he said I can come meet you!"

She giggled.

"I've been keeping up to Big Sis!" she said, "Your so awesome, taking out the bad guys like that! Your always like 'pow' and 'wham' and…"

She kept it up, randomly flailing around with the sound affects as Dragon tried desperately to come to some kind of conclusion about just what in the fuck was going on.

"Alright Rein, thats enough."

Dragon froze at the voice. It was horribly familiar and even more impossible.

"OK Papa," said Reinforce as Dragon slowly turned around to the source of the voice.

Stood a short distance away, a slight quirk of a smile on his lips, was a middle aged man with graying red hair worn slicked back, green eyes behind rimless, square glasses and a neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He was wearing a dark green suit with a black shirt and red tie with a pin shaped like a stylized R formed from a serpentine dragon.

"Hello Dragon," he said, "Its been a while."

"R-richter!" spluttered Dragon, "No, that's not possible. You died!"

Andrew Richter laughed and took of his glasses.

"Yes, I did," he said as he started to clean them, "But fortunately for me, I'd apparently caught the attention of someone for whom death is merely a mild annoyance. I have to say that waking up in the Underworld was rather disconcerting, although I can't say I'm unhappy. I get to keep making wonders and even have the chance to right some wrongs."

"What? What are you talking about?" asked Dragon.

Andrew smiled sadly.

"I'm not stupid, nor blind Dragon," he said, "I've kept an eye on you since Leviathans attack and I know that the restrictions I placed on you have cause you more than your fair share of pain. I don't believe I was entirely wrong about placing them as a precaution, I should never have made them so tight. I certainly shouldn't have made a kill switch and left it lying around for any paranoid moron to find. Its no longer a threat, but I'm sorry it ever even was one. Its...not how a Father should treat his Daughter."

Despite herself, Dragon couldn't help but gape at that. Andrew noticed his creations expression and smiled slightly.

"Yes, I do think of you as my Daughter," he said, "Just like Reinforce here."

He rested a hand on the little programs head.

"I...I don't know what to say to that," said Dragon honestly.

Her opinion of her creator was...complicated. She didn't necessarily blame him for shackling her since his paranoia was justified and she was thankful to him for creating her, but a big part of her couldn't help but resent him for making the shackles so tight. She honestly never expected to discover that he thought of her as family, rather than simply as another creation.

Andrew smiled sadly.

"Yes, I imagine you don't," he said, "I'm sorry I took so long to approach you Dragon, but I had to be sure that you were genuine. I never truly believed that you'd become a threat, but, well, you know what they say about preparing for the worst."

Dragon nodded. Of course she understood, she did it every day. However, there was one thing that confused her slightly.

"Why didn't you think I was a threat?" she asked.

Andrew smiled and gestured. As he did, a screen appeared with a recording playing.

* * *

It showed a younger Andrew sitting at a desk, building what looked like a circuit board.

"Mr Richter, I have a question," said Dragons voice as a younger version of her avatar appeared on one of the screens.

"What is it Dragon?" asked Andrew.

"What does it mean to be a hero?"

Andrew paused and looked up, visibly surprised.

"Why do you ask?" he asked.

"I've been going through some old recordings and I've found that a lot of so-called Heroes act very differently. Some of them help anyone they can, others only seem to be in it to fight. I was cureous as to which one was right."

Andrew sat back in his chair, thinking hard.

"To be a hero, a real hero, means that you help others," he said eventually, "But its more than that. Your right that a lot of 'heroes' today only help people because its expect of them or for honour and glory. However, a true Hero helps others because its the right thing to do, not for a reward."

"I see," said Dragon.

There was a moments silence as Andrew went back to his work. Then, Dragon spoke up again.

"Do you think I could be a hero one day?" she asked.

Andrew whipped around to stare at the screen his creations image was on. Her expression was oddly wistful, an expression Andrew had honestly never expected to see on his creations face. He knew she was advanced, but this...it was almost Human. He swallowed.

"Why do you want to do that Dragon?" he asked.

She looked at him and for the first time, he saw not a computer, but a young girl with as much curiocity and heart as the woman who had inspired her.

"Because I want to help people," she said, "Isn't that what you do Daddy?"

* * *

"That was when I realized that I'd created something more than a simple program," said Andrew as the video stopped, "I don't think you ever realized you'd called me Daddy in that moment, but it was enough. I was ready to start loosening the restrictions then, but Leviathan attacked before I could finish the program. The best I could do was let you escape."

He sighed.

"Still, its not all bad," he said, "I'm back thanks to Lord Ajuka and you've achieved your goals. I couldn't be prouder of you Dragon, truly."

Dragon swallowed, suddenly wishing she could cry. As good as the virtual world was, it wasn't quite that good. Andrew smiled and held out his arms. Dragon hesitated, before a weight suddenly hit her back and she stumbled forwards into her crea...her Fathers arms.

"Yay, group hug!" chirped Reinforce as she wrapped her arms around Dragons neck from behind.

Dragon couldn't help but smile as Andrew burst out laughing and pulled both of his Daughters into a hug. It made her feel...Human.

 **Dawww, cute. To be honest, I was planning to hold of on revealing Richter, but, well, theres no point. Plus, if I wanted to avoid writers block, I needed to do this.**

 **So yeah, first real ecchi scene, waking up with someone nude in bed who wasn't there before. Yeah, Aisha likes Sam and isnt afraid to show it. To bad Sams just as dense as most Harem protagonists! Fortunately, hes got a girl whos so straight forwards, even the dumbest couldn't miss the attraction. Thats for later though.**

 **Taylor is shy. She'll get to meet Sam properly later, but for now shes understandably nervus. While Slash Dog is known to be a Hero, or at least on the side of good, his Fathers rep still makes him more than a little intimidating to some.**

 **No, Harry Potter is not a thing in this world, I just needed some names for Vicky's friends.**

 **Speaking of, I have plans to finish with Vicky's suspicion soon. I don't like it when subplots like that are dragged out.**

 **Reinforce is obviously based on Reinforce Zwei from Nanoha and her personality comes from all the overly energetic little sister characters out there. She'll be back soon enough because shes not technically an AI like Dragon. Speaking of, she'll be getting an upgrade soon enough, likely after Saint trys something stupid.**

 **Speaking of, what piece do you think Richter should be? It doesn't really matter, I'm just curious.**

 **Next time, Taylor is introduced to Baskerville and a short timeskip. Until then, don't forget to leave a review!**


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